Today in History - December 5
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For Asia History: https://www.asiaobserver.org/category/news/on-this-day-in-asian-history
1349 Dec 5, 500 Jews of Nuremberg were massacred during Black Death riots.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1443 Dec 5, Giuliano della Rovere, later Pope Julius II (1443-1513), was born in Liguria.
(www.newadvent.org/cathen/08562a.htm)
1456 Dec 5, Earthquake struck Naples and 35,000 died.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1484 Dec 5, Pope Innocent VIII issued a bull deploring the spread of witchcraft and heresy in Germany. He ordered that all cats belonging to witches scheduled to be burned, be also burned. Kraemer and Sprenger, two Dominican friars, had induced Pope Innocent VIII to issue a bull authorizing them to extirpate witchcraft in Germany. [see 1486]
(SFEC, 1/5/97, zone 1 p.2)(HN, 12/5/98)(HNQ, 10/31/99)
1492 Dec 5, Columbus discovered Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic).
(HFA, '96, p.20)(AM, 7/97, p.58)
1496 Dec 5, Jews were expelled from Portugal by order of King Manuel I.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1570 Dec 5, Johan Friis, chancellor of Denmark (b.1532), died. his share of spoliated Church property had made him one of the wealthiest men in Denmark. Under King Frederick II (1559-1588), who understood but little of state affairs, Friis was well-nigh omnipotent. He was largely responsible for the Scandinavian Seven Years' War (1562-1570), which did so much to exacerbate the relations between Denmark and Sweden.
(http://tinyurl.com/7vnad)
1578 Dec 5, Sir Francis Drake sailed into the port of Valparaiso. He had renamed his flagship, the Pelican, to the Golden Hind, and ravaged the coasts of Chile and Peru on his way around the world.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.22)(ON, 7/03, p.7)
1602 Dec 5, Giulio Caccini's "Euridice," premiered in Florence.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1621 Dec 5, A letter from the English office of the Virginia Company reported that European honeybees (Apis mellifera) were shipped to America. They arrived in Virginia in March 1622.
(www.orsba.org/htdocs/download/Honey%20Bees%20Across%20America.html)
1663 Dec 5, Severo Bonini (80), composer, died.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1666 Dec 5, Francesco Antonio Nicola Scarlatti, composer, was born.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1687 Dec 5, Francesco Xaverio Geminiani, composer, was born.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1707 Dec 5, The Society of Antiquaries of London was founded at the Bear Tavern in the Strand by John Talman, the son of an architect, Humfrey Wanley, a student of ancient inscriptions and Anglo-Saxon, and John Bagford, an eccentric shoemaker and dealer in books. They met for the purposes of forming a Society for the study of British antiquities, whose agreed aim was to further the study of British history prior to the reign of James I.
(www.sal.org.uk/newsandevents/makinghistoryantiquaries/)(http://tinyurl.com/32uzwc)
1758 Dec 5, Johann Friedrich Fasch (70), composer, died.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1766 Dec 5, London auctioneers Christie's held their 1st sale. The British auction house Christie’s was sold in 1998 to Francois Pinault, a French businessman and art collector.
(HT, 3/97, p.74)(WSJ, 5/15/98, p.W12)(WSJ, 5/19/98, p.B10)(MC, 12/5/01)
1776 Dec 5, Phi Beta Kappa was organized as the first American college scholastic Greek letter fraternity, at William and Mary College, Williamsburg, Va. In 2005 the honor society had some 600,000 members with about 15,000 new members joining annually.
(AP, 12/5/97)(HN, 12/5/98)(WSJ, 11/4/05, p.W12)
1782 Dec 5, Martin Van Buren, 8th US President (1837-1841) was born in Kinderhook, N.Y. He was the first chief executive to be born after American independence.
(AP, 12/5/08)
1791 Dec 5, Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died in Vienna, Austria, at age 35. His first opera was "Idomeneo." In 1920 Hermann Abert authored “W.A. Mozart." In 1991 Georg Knepler authored "Wolfang Amade Mozart," a Marxist view of Mozart in his times. In 1995 Maynard Solomon published a psychoanalytic biography of Mozart. In 1999 Peter Gay authored a Penguin short life of Mozart and Robert W. Gutman authored the comprehensive biography "Mozart."
(SFEC, 2/2/97, DB. p.54)(AP, 12/5/97)(WSJ, 12/2/99, p.A20)(WSJ, 3/1/08, p.W8)
1792 Dec 5, George Washington was re-elected president; John Adams was re-elected vice president.
(AP, 12/5/97)
1830 Dec 5, Christina Rossetti (d.1894), poet (Winter Rain, Passing Away), was born in London. She wrote devotional verse, curious fairy tales and category defying poems. Her brothers, William Michael and Dante Gabriel, helped found the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, whose professed aim was to revive the purity and vividness they admired in late medieval art. Her story is told by Jan Marsh in “Christina Rosetti: A Writer’s Life." "Better by far you should forget and smile, Than that you should remember and be sad."
(WSJ, 7/25/95, p.A-10)(AP, 12/11/98)(MC, 12/5/01)
1831 Dec 5, Former President John Quincy Adams took his seat as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
(AP, 12/5/01)
1832 Dec 5, Andrew Jackson was re-elected US president and became the 1st president to win an election in which the turnout exceeded 50%. The US anti-Mason Party with William Wirt drew 8% of the vote against Henry Clay and the eventual winner, Andrew Jackson. Clay led the Whig Party which coalesced against the power of Andrew Jackson. The Whigs came from the conservative, nationalist wing of the Jeffersonian Republicans. The election served as a referendum on Jackson’s position against the 2nd Bank of the US.
(Hem, 8/96, p.86)(WSJ, 7/8/99, p.A16)(Panic, p.3)(AH, 6/07, p.45)
1837 Dec 5, Hector Berlioz' "Requiem," premiered.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1839 Dec 5, George Armstrong Custer (d.1876), Union cavalry leader who met his fate against Native Americans at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, was born.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1848 Dec 5, President Polk triggered the Gold Rush of '49 by confirming that gold had been discovered in California. Paula Mitchell Marks later wrote “Precious Dust," an account of the gold rush. In 2002 H.W. Brands authored “The Age of Gold: The California Gold Rush and the New American Dream."
(AP, 12/5/97)(SFEC, 4/12/98, BR p.7)(SSFC, 8/18/02, p.M1)
1859 Dec 5, Dion Boucicault's "Octaroon," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1861 Dec 5, In the U.S. Congress, petitions and bills calling for the abolition of slavery were introduced.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1862 Dec 5, Union general Ulysses Grant’s cavalry received a setback in an engagement on the Mississippi Central Railroad at Coffeeville, Mississippi.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1864 Dec 5, Confederate General Hood sent Nathan Bedford Forrest’s cavalry and a division of infantry towards Murfreesboro, Tenn.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1867 Dec 5, Henry Haight (1825-1878), the 10th governor of California (1867-1871), gave his inaugural address.
(www.governor.ca.gov/govsite/govsgallery/h/biography/governor_10.html)
1868 Dec 5, 1st American bicycle college opened in NY.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1872 Dec 5, The Marie Celeste, a Canadian-built American-owned merchant brigantine, was discovered in the Atlantic Ocean, unmanned and apparently abandoned (the one lifeboat was missing, along with its crew of seven). In 1885 the ship was destroyed when her last owner intentionally wrecked her off the coast of Haiti in an attempt to commit insurance fraud.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Celeste)
1876 Dec 5, Daniel Stillson (Mass) patented the 1st practical pipe wrench.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1876 Dec 5, In NYC a fire in the Brooklyn Theater killed 278 people.
(WSJ, 9/13/01, p.B11)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Claxton)
1890 Dec 5, Fritz Lang (d.1976), film director, was born. His work included “Metropolis," “M," and “The Big Heat."
(WSJ, 4/3/00, p.A46)(HN, 12/5/00)
1890 Dec 5, Berlioz' opera "Les Troyens," premiered in Karlsruhe.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1893 Dec 5, 1st electric car was built in Toronto. It could go 15 miles between charges.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1894 Dec 5, Georges Feydeau's "L'Hotel du Libre Echange," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1901 Dec 5, Walter Elias Disney (d.1966), movie producer and animator, was born in Chicago. Walt Disney created a cartoon empire with the character Mickey Mouse.
(AP, 12/5/97)(SFC, 11/4/98, p.E1)(HN, 12/5/98)(MC, 12/5/01)
1901 Dec 5, Werner Heisenberg (d.1976), German physicist, was born. He discovered the uncertainty principle and won the Nobel Prize in 1932.
(V.D.-H.K.p.337)(MC, 12/5/01)
1901 Dec 5, Grace Moore, American soprano (One Night to Live), was born.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1904 Dec 5, Japanese destroyed Russian fleet at Port Arthur in Korea.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1905 Dec 5, Otto Preminger, director and producer (Laura, Exodus), was born in Austria.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1909 Dec 5, George Taylor made the first manned glider flight in Australia in a glider that he designed himself.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1910 Dec 5, China set this date for the removal of queus (a braid of hair) from the heads of male citizens. This was expected to glut the human hair market.
(SSFC, 12/19/10, DB p.50)
1912 Dec 5, Italy, Austria, and Germany renewed the Triple Alliance for six years.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1916 Dec 5, Hans Richter (73), composer, died.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1916 Dec 5, David Lloyd George replaced Herbert Asquith as the British Prime Minister.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1919 Dec 5, Colombian airline Avianca S.A. was initially registered under the name SCADTA (Colombian-German Air Transport Company).
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avianca)
1921 Dec 5, The British Empire reached an accord with Sinn Fein; Ireland was to become a free state.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1926 Dec 5, Sergei Eisenstein's "Battleship Potemkin," debuted.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1926 Dec 5, Claude [Oscar] Monet (b.1840), French painter (impressionist), died at Giverny, where he’d painted since 1883. Monet was one of the original proponents of Impressionism and--despite failing eyesight--painted fervently until his death. He was born in Paris, but grew up observing nature on the Normandy coast near Le Havre. While studying under Charles Gleyre, Monet met fellow students Fridiric Bazille, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Alfred Sisley. They broke with their teacher and his conventions of painting that included, among other traditions, the painting of outdoor landscapes in a studio. Although he began to experiment with "series" in the late 1870s, his trademark method only appeared in earnest in the 1890s. This involved a series of paintings of the same subject under different lighting and weather conditions. Monet remained committed to Impressionism long after many of his contemporaries had abandoned the style. In 2006 over 1000 letters to Monet were auctioned.
(SSFC, 5/20/01, p.T8)(HNQ, 5/25/01)(SFC, 12/9/06, p.E2)
1928 Dec 5, Paraguay initiated a series of clashes, which led to full-scale war with Bolivia in spite of inter-American arbitration efforts. Both belligerents moved more troops into the Chaco Boreal, a wilderness region north of the Pilcomayo River and west of the Paraguay River that forms part of the Gran Chaco. By 1932 war was definitely under way.
(www.onwar.com/aced/data/charlie/chaco1932.htm)
1931 Dec 5, Reverend James Cleveland, considered the “King of Gospel," was born.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1932 Dec 5, Richard Wayne Penniman [Little Richard], singer, was born.
(HN, 12/5/00)
1932 Dec 5, German physicist Albert Einstein was granted a visa, making it possible for him to travel to the United States. In 2003 Thomas Levenson authored “Einstein in Berlin."
(AP, 12/5/97)(SSFC, 4/20/03, p.M2)
1933 Dec 5, Prohibition was repealed--much to the delight of thirsty revelers--when Utah became the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The nationwide prohibition of the manufacture, sale or transportation of alcoholic beverages was established in January 1919 with passage of the 18th Amendment. Prohibition's supporters gradually became disenchanted with it as the illegal manufacture and sale of liquor fostered a wave of criminal activity. By 1932, the Democratic Party's platform called for the repeal of Prohibition. In February 1933, Congress adopted a resolution proposing the 21st Amendment to repeal the 18th and with Utah's vote in December, Prohibition ended. Three-quarters of the states approved the repeal of the 18th amendment and FDR proclaimed the end of Prohibition.
(SFC, 4/7/96, p.B-11)(AP, 12/5/97)(HNPD, 12/5/98)
1933 Dec 5, SF became a dry city with the death of Prohibition as the city went under state license control with no licenses issued.
(SSFC, 11/30/08, DB p.58)
1933 Dec 5, In SF some 6,259 men received pay from the Civil Works Administration for projects that included Lake Merced road and Balboa reservoir.
(SSFC, 11/30/08, DB p.58)
1934 Dec 5, Joan Didion, essayist and novelist, was born. Her work includes “Slouching Towards Bethlehem" and “Play it as it Lays."
(HN, 12/5/00)
1934 Dec 5, Italian and Ethiopian troops clashed at the Ualual on disputed Somali-Ethiopian border.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1935 Dec 5, Calvin Trillin, journalist and writer, was born.
(HN, 12/5/00)
1936 Dec 5, Albert Walter Jr. (22) was executed by hanging at San Quentin, Ca. He had admitted to strangling a girl in San Francisco nearly 6 months earlier.
(SSFC, 12/4/11, DB p.46)
1936 Dec 5, Armenian SSR, Azerbaijan SSR, Georgian SSR, Kazakh SSR & Kirghiz SSR became constituent republics of Soviet Union.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1936 Dec 5, The New Constitution in the Soviet Union promised universal suffrage, but the Communist Party remained the only legal political party.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1937 Dec 5, The Lindberghs arrived in New York on a holiday visit after a two-year voluntary exile.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1940 Dec 5, Jan Kubelik (60), composer, died.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1941 Dec 5, President Roosevelt sent a message to Japanese Emperor Hirohito expressing hope that gathering war clouds would be dispelled. Hirohito smiled enigmatically, knowing that Japan would attack Pearl Harbor the next day.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1941 Dec 5, US aircraft carrier Lexington and 5 heavy cruisers steamed out of Pearl Harbor.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1941 Dec 5, Sister Elizabeth Kenny's new treatment for infantile paralysis, polio, was approved.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1941 Dec 5, Russian offensive in Moscow drove out the Nazi army.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1942 Dec 5, Arthur Seyss-Inquart ordered students in Nazi Germany to work.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1945 Dec 5, Four TBM Avenger bombers disappear approximately 100 miles off the coast of Florida, in what is considered the Bermuda Triangle.
(HN, 12/5/99)
1945 Dec 5, Petras Kalpokas (b.1880), Lithuanian painter, died in Kaunas.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petras_Kalpokas)
1946 Dec 5, Jose Carreras, opera tenor (I Lombardi, Werther, Three Tenors), was born in Barcelona, Spain.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1946 Dec 5, President Truman created the Committee on Civil Rights by Executive Order #9808.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1950 Dec 5, Pyongyang in Korea fell to the invading Chinese army.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1951 Dec 5, "Dragnet" premiered on TV.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1951 Dec 5, "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, of baseball's "Black Sox" scandal, died.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1952 Dec 5-1952 Dec 8, A 4-day London smog killed 4,703 people. Oxides of sulfur and other irritants from coal smoke were blamed. The air pollution contributed to some 12,000 deaths.
(PCh, 1992, p.937)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Smog)(Econ, 11/26/16, p.74)
1953 Dec 5, Italy and Yugoslavia agreed to pull troops out of the disputed Trieste border.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1955 Dec 5, The US Montgomery Bus Boycott began in 1955. In Montgomery, Alabama, Martin Luther King Jr. organized a bus boycott and began the civil rights movement to end segregation. Black residents chose Mr. King to head The Montgomery Improvement Association, formed to sustain the protest against segregation policies on the municipal buses.
(HFA, '96, p.44)(TMC, 1994, p.1955)(SFEM, 2/2/97, p.8)
1956 Dec 5, Thornton Wilder's "Matchmaker," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1956 Dec 5, Herb Stempel lost to Charles Van Doren on the NBC quiz show “Twenty One" in a fixed match. Albert Freedman (34), who had taken over as head of the Geritol sponsored show, had coached the charming Van Doren to get rid of the expressionless Stempel.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herb_Stempel)(Econ 5/6/17, p.82)
1957 Dec 5, The William Inge play, “The Dark at the Top of the Stairs," opened at New York's Music Box Theatre and ran for a total of 468 performances, closing on January 17, 1959. It was directed by Elia Kazan. The drama was reworked by Inge from his earlier play, Farther Off from Heaven, first staged in 1947 at Margo Jones' Theatre '47 in Dallas, Texas.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_at_the_Top_of_the_Stairs)
1962 Dec 5, Pres. Kennedy discussed stockpiling nuclear weapons to deter Soviet attacks with senior staff including Def. Sec. McNamara and Gen. Maxwell Taylor.
(SFC, 2/7/02, p.A4)
1966 Dec 5, Comedian and political activist Dick Gregory headed for Hanoi, North Vietnam despite federal warnings against it.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1967 Dec 5, Benjamin Spock and Allen Ginsberg were arrested for protesting Vietnam war.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1968 Dec 5, Eduardo Castera, a Latin successfully hijacked a B-727 from Tampa to Cuba.
(http://cuban-exile.com/doc_176-200/doc0180.html)
1972 Dec 5, The Nixon administration, in response to recent hijackings, ordered airports to screen every passenger with a metal detector, inspect the contents of carry-ones and station a local police officer or sheriff’s deputy at every one of the nation’s 531 major commercial facilities. In 2013 Brendan I. Koerner authored “The Skies Belong to Us: Love and Terror in the Golden Age of Hijacking."
(SSFC, 6/30/13, p.F4)
1972 Dec 5, Gough Whitlam (1916-2014), labor leader, became the 21st prime minister of Australia. He served to Nov 11, 1975.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gough_Whitlam)
1973 Dec 5, Paul McCartney released his "Band on the Run" album.
(www.amazon.com/Band-Run-Paul-McCartney-Wings/dp/B000002UCL)
1974 Dec 5, The TV show "Monty Python's Flying Circus" was last shown on BBC. It had premiered on Oct 5, 1969.
(www.museum.tv/archives/etv/M/htmlM/montypython/montypython.htm)
1978 Dec 5, The American space probe Pioneer Venus I, orbiting Venus, began beaming back its first information and picture of the planet to scientists in Mountain View, Calif.
(AP, 12/5/98)
1978 Dec 5, Afghan Pres. Nur Mohammad Tarakai, head of People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), signed a treaty of friendship with the Soviet Union.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)(www.eedi.org.ua/eem/7eng.html)
1979 Dec 5, Feminist Sonia Johnson was formally excommunicated by the Mormon Church because of her outspoken support for the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution.
(AP, 12/5/99)
1979 Dec 5, Teresa De Simone (22) was found strangled in her car outside the pub where she worked in Southampton, 80 miles (130 kilometers) southwest of London. Sean Hodgson initially confessed to the killing, but he later recanted and pleaded not guilty. His lawyers argued he was a pathological liar and any confession he made was false. In 2009 Hodgson was released from prison based on DNA evidence.
(AP, 3/18/09)(http://tinyurl.com/c5jz3y)
1982 Dec 5, Seattle Univ. Baptist Church declared sanctuary for Central American refugees.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1987 Dec 5, FBI agents searched a federal prison where Cuban inmates had peacefully ended an 11-day hostage siege the day before. The agents reported finding bottle bombs and homemade machetes, but no booby-traps or bodies.
(AP, 12/5/97)
1987 Dec 5, In Berkeley, Ca., the body of Deanna Butterfield (21) was found in Tilden Park. In 2006 DNA evidence linked William Huff to the murder, but there was insufficient evidence to charge him. In 2015 Huff was charged for this murder and another in 1992 in San Pablo.
(SFC, 4/8/15, p.D1)
1988 Dec 5, A federal grand jury in North Carolina indicted PTL founder Jim Bakker and former aide Richard Dortch on fraud and conspiracy charges. Bakker was convicted of all counts; Dortch pleaded guilty to four counts and cooperated with prosecutors in exchange for a lighter sentence.
(AP, 12/5/98)
1988 Dec 5, The US Space Shuttle Atlantis continued its classified mission.
(http://www.astronautix.com/craft/atlantis.htm)
1989 Dec 5, East Germany's former leaders, including ousted Communist Party chief Erich Honecker, were placed under house arrest.
(AP, 12/5/97)
1989 Dec 5, A French TGV train reached a world record speed of 482.4 kph.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TGV_world_speed_record)
1990 Dec 5, President Bush, on a visit to Argentina, said he was “not optimistic" that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein would withdraw from Kuwait without a fight.
(AP, 12/5/00)
1991 Dec 5, Samuel K. Skinner was named White House chief of staff by President Bush, succeeding John H. Sununu.
(AP, 12/5/01)
1991 Dec 5, Richard Speck, who murdered eight student nurses in Chicago in 1966 died of a heart attack in prison a day short of his 50th birthday.
(USA Today, 5/14/96, p.3A)(AP, 7/14/97)(AP, 12/5/97)
1992 Dec 5, Ralph Klein, a Progressive Conservative, was elected premier of Alberta. He began to lead Canada in deregulation and privatization. Klein retired at the end of 2006.
(Econ, 7/17/04, p.37)(Econ, 12/2/06, p.44)
1992 Dec 5, Russian President Boris Yeltsin narrowly kept the power to appoint Cabinet ministers, defeating a constitutional amendment that would have put his team of reformers under the control of Russia's Congress.
(AP, 12/5/97)
1993 Dec 5, Astronauts began the repair of Hubble telescope in space.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-61)
1993 Dec 5, In Connecticut Theodore Edwards (77), a restaurant custodian, was fatally shot in Bridgeport. In 2020 Danarius Dukes (44) and Eric Brown (46) were taken into custody and charged with felony murder.
(https://tinyurl.com/y7o6ck7k)(SSFC, 7/5/20, p.A6)
1993 Dec 5, A Palestinian boarded a bus and opened fire with an assault rifle in the first major attack in Israel since the signing of a peace pact with the PLO; the gunman killed a reservist before being gunned down.
(AP, 12/5/98)
1994 Dec 5, President Clinton, on a whirlwind visit to the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Budapest, Hungary, urged European leaders to "prevent future Bosnias." In the so-called Budapest memorandum Britain, Russia and the US affirmed their commitment to respect the independence, sovereignty and existing borders of Ukraine.
(AP, 12/5/99)(AFP, 3/3/14)
1994 Dec 5, Newt Gingrich was elected the first Republican speaker of the US House in four decades.
(AP, 12/5/97)
1994 Dec 5, The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I) went into effect and the United States and Russia began to consider ratification of START II.
(www.fas.org/spp/starwars/crs/91-139.htm)
1994 Dec 5, In India’s Bihar state a mob that pulled senior government official G. Krishnaiah out of his car and beat him unconscious before shooting him to death because the official's car had inadvertently crossed paths with the funeral procession of a noted underworld don and aspiring politician, Chottan Shukla. In 2007 Anand Mohan and two other politicians were sentenced to hang for their role in the attack. Four others, including Mohan's wife, Lovely Anand — also a former member of parliament — were sentenced to life in prison by the court in Patna, the capital of Bihar state.
(AP, 10/4/07)(http://tinyurl.com/3yj99o)
1995 Dec 5, In the first hint of movement at the budget talks, White House officials and Democratic congressional leaders said they were preparing a seven-year budget-balancing plan.
(AP, 12/5/00)
1995 Dec 5, Stanley Keith Runcorn (73), a professor in geophysics, was killed by Paul Bradford Cain (26), a kickboxer, at the Hotel San Diego. Cain was convicted in 1997 of first-degree murder.
(SFC, 10/3/97, p.A20)
1995 Dec 5, Former South Korean president Roh Tae-woo, four aides and a dozen top businessmen were indicted in a bribes-for-favors scandal.
(AP, 12/5/00)
1996 Dec 5, President Clinton announced the foreign policy team for his second term, including Madeleine Albright as the first female secretary of state, Sen. William Cohen of Maine, a Republican, as defense secretary and Anthony Lake as CIA director.
(WSJ, 12/6/96, p.A1)(AP, 12/5/97)
1996 Dec 5, Alan Greenspan warned that investors could be succumbing to “irrational exuberance." Nasdaq closed at 1300.12.
(WSJ, 7/24/02, p.A1)
1996 Dec 5, An African Summit opened in Burkina Faso. New candidates for the position of UN Secretary-general were to be considered.
(WSJ, 12/6/96, p.A1)
1996 Dec 5, In Colombia Isidro Gil, a union leader at a Carepa Coca-Cola bottling plant, was killed at work. It was later alleged that the plant manager hired right-wing paramilitary to help wipe out union activity. In 2002 the labor union filed suit against Coca-Cola in Miami.
(SFC, 6/6/02, p.A11)
1996 Dec 5, In Iran the Parliament passed legislation that banned the use of foreign words and names in the country. Only Farsi language names would be allowed.
(WSJ, 12/6/96, p.A12)
1996 Dec 5, In Serbia Milosevic allowed the radio stations to resume broadcasting. The disputed elections were to be reviewed by the Supreme Court.
(SFC, 12/6/96, p.B2)
1997 Dec 5, Pres. Clinton said US troops in Haiti will continue their presence. Some 300-500 troops were posted on a rotating basis for civil affairs work with an additional 150 US military police for security.
(SFC, 12/6/97, p.A10)
1997 Dec 5, The space shuttle Columbia returned from a 16-day mission that had been marred by the bungled release of a satellite.
(AP, 12/5/98)
1997 Dec 5, The World Trade Organization rejected American claims that the Fuji film company had conspired with the Japanese government to keep Eastman Kodak products out of Japan.
(SFC, 12/5/97, p.C3)(AP, 12/5/98)
1997 Dec 5, In India explosions on 3 separate passenger trains left at least 10 dead and 64 injured in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
(SFC, 12/6/97, p.A9)
1997 Dec 5, In Mexico City Mayor Cuautemoc Cardenas (63) was sworn into office. He named Jesus Carrola as head of the judicial police.
(SFC, 12/6/97, p.A8)(SFC, 12/11/97, p.C3)
1997 Dec 5, Pres. Yeltsin visited the lower house of parliament and prodded the passage of the new budget with austere spending plans.
(SFC, 12/6/97, p.A9)
1997 Dec 5, In Spain a politician’s bodyguard was shot to death hours before authorities arrested 19 of 23 leaders of the pro-Basque independence party, Herri Batasuna, in San Sebastian. Protestors also commandeered a bus and burned it.
(SFC, 12/6/97, p.A8)
1997 Dec 5, In northern Sri Lanka Heavy fighting left some 250 dead. Guerrillas turned over the bodies of 111 government soldiers and some 150 Tamil rebel were believed killed in Vavuniya.
(SFC, 12/6/97, p.A9)
1997 Dec 5, Turkish troops began an offensive against Turkish Kurds in northern Iraq. The 20,000 man force was to be assisted by 8,000 men of the Kurdistan Democratic party, an Iraqi group.
(SFC, 12/6/97, p.A9)
1998 Dec 5, James P. Hoffa claimed the Teamsters presidency after challenger Tom Leedham conceded defeat in the union's presidential election.
(SFEC, 12/6/98, p.A9)(AP, 12/5/99)
1998 Dec 5, Former Senator Albert Gore Senior (90), father of the vice president, died at his home in Carthage, Tenn.
(AP, 12/5/99)
1998 Dec 5, In Nigeria local government elections were held.
(SFEC, 12/6/98, p.A21)
1998 Dec 5, In Paraguay the ruling Colorado Pary expelled former army chief Lino Oviedo and accused Pres. Raul Cubas of defying the constitution for failing obey a Supreme Court ruling to send Oviedo back to prison.
(SFEC, 12/6/98, p.A28)
1998 Dec 5, In South Korea the first Japanese film since 1945 was screened. “Hana Bi" (Fireworks) was the first film shown since a ban on Japanese work was lifted in Oct.
(SFEC, 12/6/98, p.A15)
1998 Dec 5, Pakistan's sinking credit rating and unsuccessful talks with U.S. officials in Washington caused a major setback to the stock market.
(UPI, 12/6/98)
1999 Dec 5, AFL-CIO chief John Sweeney welcomed the collapse of World Trade Organization talks in Seattle and the failure to agree on a new round of negotiations, telling CBS’ “Face the Nation," “No deal is better than a bad deal."
(AP, 12/5/00)
1999 Dec 5, Cuban President Fidel Castro demanded that the United States return five-year-old Elian Gonzalez, who was rescued at sea, to his father in Cuba within 72 hours.
(AP, 12/5/00)
1999 Dec 5, In France Michele Alliot-Marie (53) was elected as the 1st female leader of the conservative Rally for the Republic.
(SFC, 12/6/99, p.A14)
1999 Dec 5, In Vietnam 4 days of rain caused flooding that left over 109 people dead.
(SFC, 12/6/99, p.A14)(SFC, 12/7/99, p.B3)
2000 Dec 5, The US Nasdaq market rose 274 points, 10.5%, to 2889 on hints from Greenspan that interest rates may be cut. The Dow rose 338 to 10,898.
(SFC, 12/6/00, p.A1)
2000 Dec 5, Florida's highest court kept the presidential race on the legal fast track, agreeing to a speedy hearing of Al Gore's appeal of a ruling that in effect awarded George W. Bush the state's 25 electoral votes.
(SFC, 12/6/00, p.A1)(AP, 12/5/01)
2000 Dec 5, The Israeli and Palestinian violence was reported to have cost the Palestinians over $500 million in lost wages and sales since late September.
(SFC, 12/6/00, p.A16)
2000 Dec 5, In the Ivory Coast police battled opposition supporters for a 2nd day and at least 10 people were killed.
(SFC, 12/6/00, p.A18)
2000 Dec 5, In Japan Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori appointed a new Cabinet that included 2 former prime ministers, Miyazawa and Hashimoto.
(SFC, 12/5/00, p.A16)
2000 Dec 5, In Mexico Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, the new chief of the national security council, vowed to end illegal wiretapping.
(SFC, 12/6/00, p.C3)
2000 Dec 5, In Mexico City Manuel Andres Lopez Obrador took office as mayor and vowed to delegate power and resources down to the 1,352 neighborhood governments. Obrador appointed women to 9 of his 15 cabinet seats.
(SFC, 12/6/00, p.C3)
2000 Dec 5, In South Africa 7 people were killed at 2 polling stations during the 2nd all-race municipal elections. The elections slashed the number of municipalities from 843 to 284 with 6 mega cities, each presided by a single mayor. The ruling African National Congress (ANC) won at least 59% of the contests.
(SFC, 12/6/00, p.A18)(WSJ, 12/7/00, p.A1)
2001 Dec 5, The FBI arrested escaped fugitive Clayton Lee Waagner in St. Louis. Waagner was suspected of mailing as many as 550 anthrax hoax letters to abortion clinics. He was also wanted for bank robbery and other offenses. In 2002 Waagner was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
(SFC, 12/6/01, p.A13)(WSJ, 12/6/01, p.A1)(SFC, 1/26/02, p.A10)
2001 Dec 5, The National Park Service web site was shut down by court order to keep hackers from accessing Indian tribal funds.
(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A1)
2001 Dec 5, Nasa launched space shuttle Endeavour to deliver a new 3-man crew to the Alpha space station. Russian cosmonaut Yuri Onufrienko flew to replace Doug Culbertson as skipper.
(WSJ, 12/6/01, p.A1)(SFC, 12/8/01, p.A2)
2001 Dec 5, The DJIA gained 129 to finish above 10,000 for the 1st time in 3 months.
(SFC, 12/30/01, p.D8)
2001 Dec 5, Marjorie Dabney (70) of Bakersfield, Ca., disappeared from the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport. In 2008 DNA evidence identified her remains, which were found in a field 15 miles from the airport.
(SFC, 12/8/08, p.A4)
2001 Dec 5, A 2000-pound US bomb killed 3 American Green Berets near Kandahar along with 18 Afghan fighters. 20 Americans were injured along with 18 Afghan fighters including newly appointed Afghan leader Hamid Karzai.
(SFC, 12/6/01, p.A1,15)(WSJ, 12/6/01, p.A1)
2001 Dec 5, Sir Peter Blake (53) of New Zealand, 2-time America’s Cup winner, was killed on the research vessel Seamaster by gunmen at Macapa, Brazil, near the mouth of the Amazon. 7 men were arrested 2 days later and an 8th was still sought. The final 2 suspects were arrested Dec 9.
(SFC, 12/7/01, p.A1)(SFC, 12/8/01, p.A2)(SFC, 12/10/01, p.A3)
2001 Dec 5, Afghan delegates in Koenigswinter, Germany, signed an agreement for an interim post-Taliban government to begin Dec 22.
(SFC, 12/6/01, p.A1)(AP, 12/5/02)
2001 Dec 5, In Jerusalem another suicide bomber sd’d outside a hotel and 2 people were injured. Sharon gave Arafat a 12-hour reprieve to arrest those responsible for the attacks.
(SFC, 12/6/01, p.A3)
2001 Dec 5, Russia agreed to cut its oil exports by 150,000 barrels a day to satisfy OPEC demands.
(WSJ, 12/6/01, p.A3)
2002 Dec 5, Trent Lott, Senate Republican leader from Mississippi, made remarks that supported Sen. Strom Thurmond's 1948 segregationist platform. The resulting firestorm prompted Lott to resign his leadership position. Strom Thurmond, the oldest and longest-serving senator in history, celebrated his 100th birthday on Capitol Hill.
(SFC, 12/13/02, p.A4)(AP, 12/5/03)
2002 Dec 5, In Kansas City, Mo. a pharmacist who had diluted chemotherapy drugs given to thousands of cancer patients was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
(AP, 12/5/03)
2002 Dec 5, A severe ice and snow storm snarled the eastern US down into the Carolinas, where over a million customers lost power. 29 deaths were blamed on the storm and its aftermath.
(SFC, 12/6/02, p.A3)(SSFC, 12/8/02, p.A14)
2002 Dec 5, The genetic code of the Black 6 mouse, the most common breed of laboratory mouse, was published in Nature.
(SFC, 12/5/02, p.A1)
2002 Dec 5, Roone Arledge (71), ABC executive, died in New York.
(AP, 12/5/03)
2002 Dec 5, In Brazil 6 South American presidents convened a summit of the continent's largest trading bloc, aiming to work out a timetable for a free trade agreement covering most of the continent.
(AP, 12/6/02)
2002 Dec 5, Ne Win (91), former general and dictator, died in Yangon. His 26 years in power bankrupted Myanmar (Burma) economically and spiritually.
(SFC, 12/6/02, p.A30)(WSJ, 12/6/02, p.A1)
2002 Dec 5, In Canada the high court ruled that higher life forms such as mice can't be patented.
(WSJ, 12/6/02, p.A1)
2002 Dec 5, Kenya’s Pres. Moi and Ethiopian PM Meles Zenawi met at the White House with Pres. Bush to discuss terrorism as well as drought, AIDS and other problems facing Africa.
(AP, 12/6/02)
2002 Dec 5, An explosion at a McDonald's Restaurant in Makassar on Sulawesi island killed three people and seriously wounded 11. A 2nd blast took place an hour later in a car showroom owned by Indonesia's Social Welfare Minister Yusuf Kalla.
(Reuters, 12/6/02)
2002 Dec 5, In Mexico City an angry mob beat to death two of three youths who allegedly tried to rob a taxi driver.
(AP, 12/6/02)
2002 Dec 5, In Pakistan a bomb exploded at the Macedonian Consulate and 3 people were killed. Revenge for a Mar 2 killing of 7 militants in Skopje was suspected.
(SFC, 12/6/02, p.A16)
2003 Dec 5, A federal judge in Utah threw out the case against two civic leaders accused of bribery in their efforts to bring the 2002 Winter Games to Salt Lake City.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2003 Dec 5, The two makers of flu shots in the United States, Chiron and Aventis Pasteur, announced they had run out of vaccine and would not be able to meet a surge in demand.
(AP, 12/5/04)
2003 Dec 5, Yahoo Inc. said it is working on technology to combat e-mail spam by changing the way the Internet works to require authentication of a message's sender.
(AP, 12/6/03)
2003 Dec 5, In eastern Afghanistan 6 children were crushed to death by a collapsing wall during an assault by U.S. forces on a weapons compound.
(AP, 12/10/03)
2003 Dec 5, Shanghai's government reported that its population has surged to more than 20 million people, soaring by 3 million over the past year amid a flood of job seekers from other parts of China.
(AP, 12/5/03)
2003 Dec 5, Hard-line vigilantes attacked a close aide to Iran's president as he was about to give a speech, repeatedly punching and kicking him, his wife.
(AP, 12/5/03)
2003 Dec 5, Israeli military allowed a market in the divided West Bank city of Hebron to open for the first time in more than a year.
(AP, 12/5/03)
2003 Dec 5, The Israeli military shot and killed two Palestinians, armed with grenades and an explosive device, crawling toward a security barrier separating the Gaza Strip from Israel.
(AP, 12/6/03)
2003 Dec 5, A shrapnel-filled bomb believed strapped to a suicide attacker ripped apart a commuter train near Chechnya, killing 44 people and wounding nearly 200. Pres. Putin called it an attempt to disrupt weekend parliamentary elections.
(AP, 12/5/04)
2003 Dec 5, A bus plunged into a valley in the northern Mexico state of Zacatecas, killing 15 people and injuring 15 others.
(AP, 12/6/03)
2003 Dec 5, In Nigeria in the opening session of the summit of Britain and its former colonies British PM Tony Blair urged African leaders not to lift Zimbabwe's suspension from the Commonwealth.
(AP, 12/5/03)
2003 Dec 5, Syria continued to reject US pressure to hand over an estimated $250 million that Saddam Hussein's regime had deposited there.
(WSJ, 12/5/03, p.A1)
2003 Dec 5, In Tunisia an informal, two-day summit brought leaders from five southern European countries together with five of their counterparts from across the Mediterranean.
(AP, 12/5/03)
2004 Dec 5, US Senator McCain demanded that baseball players and owners take action to tighten drug testing and threatened legislation to that end.
(WSJ, 12/6/04, p.A1)
2004 Dec 5, In Bolivia Indian and peasant organizations promising better access to health care and education won every major city in local elections, trouncing long-dominant parties.
(AP, 12/6/04)
2004 Dec 5, Egypt freed an Israeli Arab businessman convicted of spying in exchange for Israel's release of six Egyptian students.
(AP, 12/5/04)
2004 Dec 5, In Abkhazia (Georgia) the two candidates vying for the region's presidency agreed to conduct new elections and run on a joint ticket.
(AP, 12/6/04)
2004 Dec 5, Hungarians voted in a referendum on extending citizenship to millions of ethnic Hungarians living in the region.
(AP, 12/5/04)
2004 Dec 5, Gunmen opened fire at the bus as it dropped off Iraqis employed by coalition forces at a weapons dump in Tikrit. 17 people died and 13 were wounded. A suicide car bomber drove into an Iraqi National Guard checkpoint in Beiji. 3 guardsmen, including a company commander, were killed and 18 wounded. Guerrillas ambushed a joint Iraqi-coalition patrol in Latifiyah and attacked Iraqi National Guardsmen patrolling near Samarra. 2 Iraqis were killed and 10 wounded.
(AP, 12/6/04)
2004 Dec 5, In Kashmir a remote-controlled roadside bomb blew up an army patrol car in a pre-dawn attack, killing an Indian army major and 10 other soldiers.
(AP, 12/5/04)
2004 Dec 5, In Kazakhstan 23 people died and three others were injured in an explosion at a coal mine in the Karaganda region.
(AP, 12/5/04)
2004 Dec 5, Authorities outside Mexico City found the body of Enrique Salinas (51), the former Pres. Salinas’ brother, with a bag tied around his head. 2 federal police officers were arrested in 2005 for trying to extort money Salinas prior to his murder.
(AP, 7/15/05)
2004 Dec 5, In Nigeria hundreds of protesters besieged two oil platforms run by Royal Dutch/Shell Group Cos. and ChevronTexaco Corp. in the southern oil region, shutting down production of 90,000 barrels of oil a day.
(AP, 12/6/04)
2004 Dec 5, It was reported that the Norwegian firm Hydro and Qatar's state energy company signed a deal to build one of world's largest aluminium plants in the gas-rich Gulf state at a cost of three billion dollars.
(AFP, 12/5/04)
2004 Dec 5, In Ramallah Jad al-Hindi (19) was abducted by the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a violent militant group linked to the dominant Fatah movement. Police found al-Hindi's body the next day, saying he had been shot in the head 12 times.
(AP, 12/6/04)
2004 Dec 5, President Vladimir Putin made the first official visit by a Russian leader to Turkey, seeking to boost trade and counterterrorism cooperation between the two countries.
(AP, 12/5/04)
2004 Dec 5, Carlos Moya beat Andy Roddick 6-2, 7-6 (1), 7-6 (5) to clinch Spain's second Davis Cup title.
(AP, 12/05/05)
2004 Dec 5, Thailand airdropped nearly 100 million Japanese-style origami cranes over the predominantly Muslim southern region in a psychological effort toward peace. A series of bomb attacks followed the next day.
(AP, 12/6/04)
2005 Dec 5, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice denied the United States engaged in torture or lesser forms of cruel treatment against terror suspects.
(AP, 12/5/06)
2005 ABC News named Elizabeth Vargas and Bob Woodruff co-anchors of "World News Tonight," replacing the late Peter Jennings.
(AP, 12/5/06)
2005 Dec 5, Intel Chairman Craig Barrett said the chip-maker will invest more than $1 billion in the next five years to expand its operations in India and in local technology companies.
(AP, 12/05/05)
2005 Dec 5, A new version of King Kong, directed by Peter Jackson, premiered in NYC.
(Econ, 12/10/05, p.68)
2005 Dec 5, Edward L. Masry, the personal-injury lawyer portrayed by Albert Finney in the Oscar-winning movie "Erin Brockovich," died in Thousand Oaks, Calif., at age 73.
(AP, 12/5/06)
2005 Dec 5, Austria officially finished paying out nearly $350 million in restitution to former slave and forced laborers compelled to work during WW II under Nazi control.
(SFC, 12/6/05, p.A8)
2005 Dec 5, Gay couples in Britain began registering for civil partnerships as a law took effect giving them many of the same legal rights as married heterosexuals.
(AP, 12/05/05)
2005 Dec 5, China ordered 150 Airbus single-aisle A320 airliners, more than twice as many plane orders as the company's U.S.-based rival Boeing Co. snagged from China last month.
(AP, 12/05/05)
2005 Dec 5, In Congo a magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck the Lake Tanganyika region of East Africa toppling dozens of homes in Kalemie and burying children in the rubble. Several people were reported killed.
(AP, 12/05/05)(WSJ, 12/6/05, p.A1)
2005 Dec 5, France's highest administrative body ruled that Sikhs can wear their turbans in drivers' license photos, overturning an earlier denial of a license to a Sikh who refused to take off his turban for the photo.
(AP, 12/06/05)
2005 Dec 5, UN peacekeepers at a checkpoint in Port-au-Prince opened fire on a car full of Haitian police officers wounding two.
(AP, 12/09/05)
2005 Dec 5, In India a freight train derailed, killing six people and injuring 50 others in a remote district of eastern Orissa state.
(AP, 12/05/05)
2005 Dec 5, In Iraq unidentified gunmen abducted a French engineer as he was on his way to work in Baghdad. The trial of Saddam Hussein resumed in Baghdad. French engineer Bernard Planche was kidnapped in Baghdad. He was later freed.
(AP, 12/05/05)(AP, 12/5/06)
2005 Dec 5, Opposition leaders in Kazakhstan said that the overwhelming re-election of President Nursultan Nazarbayev should be declared invalid, and foreign observers said the balloting did not meet international standards.
(AP, 12/05/05)
2005 Dec 5, Myanmar's military junta reopened a key national constitutional convention.
(AP, 12/05/05)
2005 Dec 5, Frits Philips (100), Dutch businessman, grandson of the founder of Philips, died. He turned a family business into Philips Electronics in 40 years of leadership.
(WSJ, 12/7/05, p.A1)(http://tinyurl.com/dfnu4)
2005 Dec 5, In southeastern Nigeria Separatist protesters demanding authorities release their leader shut down businesses and banks, and an activist said security forces opened fire on the crowd, killing three people.
(AP, 12/05/05)
2005 Dec 5, A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up among shoppers waiting to enter a mall in the Israeli town of Netanya, killing at least 5 people and wounding more than 30 others.
(AP, 12/05/05)
2005 Dec 5, Officials said courts in Uzbekistan have convicted another 58 alleged participants of the May uprising in Andijan and sentenced them to up to 20 years in prison.
(AP, 12/05/05)
2005 Dec 5, In Venezuela President Hugo Chavez's governing party won full control of the 167-National Assembly, claiming a sweeping victory in congressional elections boycotted by major opposition parties.
(AP, 12/05/05)
2005 Dec 5, In Venezuela a Dec 3 explosion that damaged an oil pipeline supplying the country's largest refinery was reported to have been caused by government foes attempting to disrupt congressional elections. Interior Minister Jesse Chacon said investigators found remnants of C-4 explosives at three spots on the pipeline.
(AP, 12/05/05)
2006 Dec 5, Robert Gates won speedy and unanimous approval from the Senate Armed Services Committee to be secretary of defense.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2006 Dec 5, New York became the first city in the nation to ban artery-clogging trans fats at restaurants. The ban became effective July 1, 2007.
(AP, 12/6/06)(SFC, 7/2/07, p.A4)
2006 Dec 5, An annual US report put Minnesota at the top of its health rankings for the fourth straight year, while concluding that the nation's health improved slightly.
(AP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 5, In Alabama Geontae Glass, a 5-year-old boy who was asleep in the back of a car when it was stolen from a parking lot a day earlier, was found dead in a neighboring county.
(AP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 5, A large sunspot rounded the sun's eastern limb and with little warning it exploded. On the "Richter scale" of solar flares, which ranks X1 as a big event, the blast registered X9, making it one of the strongest flares of the past 30 years.
(http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2008/15dec_solarflaresurprise/)
2006 Dec 5, A suicide bomber plowed his car into a convoy of NATO troops in Afghanistan's southern city of Kandahar, wounding nine civilians and two soldiers.
(AP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 5, In Brazil a court said it had released the passports of two US pilots of a private jet involved in a collision with a Boeing 737 over the Amazon that killed 154 people.
(AP, 12/6/06)
2006 Dec 5, British PM Tony Blair and Rwandan President Paul Kagame discussed economic reform and how to reconcile the people of the landlocked African state still scarred by the 1994 genocide. They also talked about the conflict in the western Darfur region of Sudan, where Rwanda has troops on the ground as part of the African Union force.
(AFP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 5, The EU presidency backed a proposal to partially suspend EU membership talks with Turkey because of Ankara's refusal to open up to trade with Cyprus.
(AP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 5, The military seized control of Fiji after weeks of threats, locking down the capital with armed troops and isolating at home the elected leader whose last-minute pleas for help from foreign forces were rejected. Commodore Frank Bainimarama named Dr. Jona Senilagakali, a military medic with no political experience, as caretaker prime minister and said a full interim government would be appointed next week to see the country through to elections that would restore democracy sometime in the future. PM Laisenia Qarase, who had caved in to all demands, was deposed anyway. Pres. Ratu Josefa Iloilo, refused to rubber-stamp Bainimarama’s “doctrine of necessity."
(AP, 12/5/06)(Econ, 12/9/06, p.49)
2006 Dec 5, Knut became the first polar bear born to be born in Germany’s Berlin Zoo in 30 years. He was rejected by his mother and spent his first 44 days in an incubator. Zookeeper Thomas Doerflein (d.2008 at 44) raised the cub by hand.
(www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,461624,00.html)(SFC, 9/26/08, p.B9)
2006 Dec 5, In Germany world chess champion Vladimir Kramnik lost the sixth and decisive game against computer program Deep Fritz, ceding a hard-fought Man vs. Machine match 4-2.
(AP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 5, In Haiti at least 8 people were killed over the last few days in the Martissant slum during a gang feud set off by the Dec 3 murder of a police officer. The officer's killing reignited an ongoing battle between the rival Grand Ravine and Ti Manchet gangs.
(AP, 12/7/06)
2006 Dec 5, An Indian court sentenced Shibu Soren, former cabinet coal minister, to life behind bars for conspiracy in the abduction and murder of an aide. The court had found him guilty of the 1994 murder and abduction of his former private secretary, Shashi Nath Jha, who was allegedly blackmailing him over a corruption scandal.
(AFP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 5, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed to stick by the nuclear program and issued a new threat to downgrade relations with the EU if European negotiators opted for tough sanctions. A media rights group warned that Internet censorship in Iran is on the rise after Iran blocked access to the popular video-sharing Web site YouTube.com.
(AP, 12/6/06)
2006 Dec 5, Iraq’s PM Nouri al-Maliki said his government will send envoys to neighboring countries to pave the way for a regional conference on ending the rampant violence. Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, the top American military spokesman in Iraq, said the US military expects all of Iraq to be under the control of Iraqi forces by mid-2007. Suspected insurgents set off a car bomb to stop a minibus carrying Shiite government employees in Baghdad, then shot and killed 15 of them. In another attack in the capital, two car bombs exploded in a commercial district, killing 15 other Iraqis.
(AP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 5, An Italian prosecutor asked for the indictment of 26 Americans and Italian secret service officials on a charge of kidnapping an Egyptian cleric in Milan in 2003.
(AP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 5, Ivory Coast police fired into a crowd protesting President Laurent Gbagbo's regime and killed one person, as political opponents mounted rallies in several towns in the southern part of the divided West African country.
(AP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 5, Jamaica reported 15 cases of malaria in the Kingston area, the first in 15 years.
(WSJ, 12/6/06, p.A1)
2006 Dec 5, Kuwait's highest court overturned the conviction of Nasser Najr al-Mutairi, a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner who was returned to the emirate in 2005.
(AFP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 5, Mexico’s Pres. Calderon, under pressure to promote the social programs his leftist rival championed, presented an austere budget that increases spending for social programs to help the country's poorest. Mexican police arrested Flavio Sosa, the symbolic leader of a six-month-long protest movement that took over southern Oaxaca city, hours after he gave a news conference saying he had come to the capital to start talks with the government.
(AP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 5, Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said he is willing to give up its claim to all of Kashmir if India agrees that the disputed Himalayan region should become self-governing and largely autonomous. Troops shot dead three Islamic militants in Indian Kashmir, while 19 civilians were injured and a guerrilla was killed in a grenade blast.
(AP, 12/5/06)(AFP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 5, The first foreign aid flights of food and medicines arrived in the eastern Philippines. Officials said devastating mudslides had left at least 1,266 people dead or missing.
(AFP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 5, A Russian court sentenced Ruslan Melnik (22), a leader of an extremist group known as the Mad Crowd, to 3 1/2 years in prison for hate crime attacks on foreigners.
(AP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 5, Somalia's government ruled out peace talks with the country's Islamic movement, citing truce violations, heightening fears of an all-out war.
(AFP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 5, In South Africa the findings of a new report said nearly 300 million dollars worth of gold is stolen every year by underground pirates from mines. The report found that 41% of gold thieves were mine employees and 56% were unemployed.
(AFP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 5, A shell apparently fired by Congolese troops fighting forces loyal to a dissident general near the Ugandan border landed among a group of some 12,000 refugees in Uganda, killing at least seven.
(AFP, 12/6/06)
2006 Dec 5, Pro-Moroccan leaders in the Western Sahara presented a self-rule plan for a government, parliament and legal system in the territory, while acknowledging Rabat's sovereignty.
(AFP, 12/6/06)
2006 Dec 5, Typhoon Durian slammed into Vietnam's southern coast as a tropical storm. A Dec 7 government report said nearly 100 people were killed or are missing after the typhoon hit the southern coast.
(AP, 12/6/06)(Reuters, 12/7/06)
2006 Dec 5, In Yemen a gunman opened fire outside the US Embassy, but Yemeni guards quickly shot and arrested him.
(AP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 5, Zimbabwe's top union body vowed to stage new protests against the government, saying it had failed to address the plight of workers reeling under four-digit inflation, high taxes and a shrinking labor market.
(AFP, 12/5/06)
2007 Dec 5, President George W. Bush, trying to keep pressure on Iran, called on Tehran to "come clean" about the scope of its nuclear activities or else face diplomatic isolation.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2007 Dec 5, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver inducted the 2007 California Hall of Fame inductees: Ansel Adams, Milton Berle, Steve Jobs, Willie Mays, Robert Mondavi, Rita Moreno, Jackie Robinson, Jonas Salk, M.D., John Steinbeck, Elizabeth Taylor, Earl Warren, John Wayne, and Tiger Woods.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Hall_of_Fame)
2007 Dec 5, In Omaha, Nebraska, Robert A. Hawkins (19) sprayed the third floor of the Von Maur department store in Westroads Mall with gunfire. When the shooting was over, Hawkins killed himself. His victims included six store employees and two customers. An autopsy report later indicated that only some Valium in his system.
(AP, 12/6/07)(SFC, 1/2/08, p.A3)
2007 Dec 5, It was reported that the world’s largest helium reserve near Amarillo, Texas, was expected to run out by 2015. The Bush Dome, begun as a reserve by the government in 1925, supplied 35% of the world’s current usage.
(WSJ, 12/5/07, p.B1)
2007 Dec 5, Andrew Imbrie (b.1921), composer and teacher, died in Berkeley, Ca. His work included the opera “Angle of Repose", which was commissioned and premiered (1976) by the SF Opera.
(SFC, 12/8/07, p.B3)
2007 Dec 5, Afghan forces clashed with Taliban who had blocked a main highway in the south, killing 10 militants. A suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into a minibus carrying Afghan soldiers south of Kabul, killing at least 13 people and wounding 20 others.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, An international aid organization said Angolan soldiers routinely and repeatedly rape Congolese women who have crossed the border illegally in search of work in the diamond fields.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, Australia’s PM Kevin Rudd spoke at the state funeral for Bernie Banton (61), who died from an asbestos-related disease he contracted while working for building products company James Hardie. Banton's dogged campaign ultimately led to the establishment of a 4 billion dollar (3.5 billion US) compensation fund for victims of Hardie's asbestos products.
(AFP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, Bolivian President Evo Morales announced he would ask for a referendum on whether he should remain president, and challenged opposition governors to do the same.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, In Bosnia 4 men wearing police uniforms and armed with automatic weapons stormed Sarajevo international airport's cargo zone and stole $1.9 million.
(AP, 12/6/07)
2007 Dec 5, British police arrested John Darwin (57) on fraud charges, five years after he vanished in an apparent canoeing accident in the North Sea, only to reappear last weekend, claiming he had amnesia.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, Congo's army said it retook a strategic town on from rebels loyal to renegade Tutsi General Laurent Nkunda in the violence-torn eastern province of North Kivu.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, French police arrested two armed people in connection with a weekend shooting that left two Spanish officers dead in what authorities described as the first Basque-related killings in France in more than three decades.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, In Germany 3 men were convicted of aiding the al-Qaida in Germany, including one who prosecutors say was part of the terrorist network's command structure and had contact with top leaders.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, In Darry, Germany, the bodies of 5 young boys, ages 3 to 9, were found in their home after their 31-year-old mother told a doctor where they were. Authorities in eastern Germany announced they had found the bodies of three infant girls and had taken their mother into custody on manslaughter charges.
(AP, 12/6/07)
2007 Dec 5, Karlheinz Stockhausen (b.1928), German avant-garde composer, died. His innovative electronic works made him one of the most important composers of the postwar era. His work included “Kontakte" (1959-60) and “Stimmung" (1968), a sextet for unaccompanied voices on a 6-note chord of B-flat.
(AP, 12/8/07)(Econ, 12/15/07, p.95)
2007 Dec 5, A survey said Indian business confidence has slumped to a five-year low on the back of flagging exports, aggressive monetary tightening and a rising rupee that has slowed the economy.
(AFP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, A blast hit the northern city of Mosul. Police said explosives hidden in a parked car killed a civilian and wounded seven others. A car bomb exploded in a largely Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad and killed at least 14 people. US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said during a visit to the capital that security and stability were within reach, although more work is needed. In Baqouba a suicide car bomber targeted a bus station and killed five civilians with at least 20 others wounded. In Kirkuk a parked car bomb killed three Kurdish soldiers in a convoy guarding a police chief.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, Latvia's center-right government resigned after coming under intense criticism for firing a popular anti-corruption investigator and failing to restrain inflation.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, Liberia cleared its debt arrears with the World Bank, paving the way for new development lending and debt cancellation that will help the West African country rebuild after years of civil war.
(Reuters, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, Mexican police conducted the biggest anti-logging raid in the nation's history at clandestine sawmills that cut timber on a threatened nature reserve where Monarch butterflies nest in the winter. Authorities in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez said that they plan to exhume the remains of more than 4,000 unidentified people buried in common graves and take DNA samples in an attempt to identify them.
(AP, 12/5/07)(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 5, Six judges on Nicaragua's Supreme Court threw out a law meant to block neighborhood councils that will report directly to President Daniel Ortega. But other judges call the ruling itself illegal.
(AP, 12/6/07)
2007 Dec 5, Two Palestinian militants were killed by Israeli tank fire in northern Gaza. Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi said Israel's army has completed plans for a large offensive in the Gaza Strip and is only waiting for government approval for the action.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, Sri Lanka’s defense ministry said at least 36 people including 7 soldiers were killed in fresh fighting between security forces and Tamil rebels in the embattled north. A land mine explosion blamed on Tamil separatists tore through a passenger bus crowded with civilians in northern Sri Lanka, killing at least 16 people and wounding 22 others.
(AFP, 12/5/07)(AP, 12/6/07)
2007 Dec 5, Turkish soldiers killed eight Kurdish rebels, increasing the rebel death toll to 14 in a two-day clash near the border with Iraq.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2008 Dec 5, The US and China pledged to work together to tackle global financial turmoil as they wrapped up economic talks but left open whether the high-level dialogue will continue under President-elect Barack Obama.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, The US labor Dept. said employers slashed 533,000 jobs in November, the most in 34 years, catapulting the unemployment rate to 6.7 percent, dramatic proof the country is careening deeper into recession.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, O.J. Simpson was sentenced in Las Vegas from 9 to 33 years in prison for kidnapping and assaulting two sports memorabilia dealers with a deadly weapon.
(AP, 12/6/08)
2008 Dec 5, Cliff Lambert (74), a Palm Springs retiree, was stabbed to death and buried in the desert. To date his body has not been found. The murder was orchestrated by Kaushal Niroula, a SF New College exchange student from Nepal along with 2 other students including Craig McCarthy of Daly City. Miguel Bustamante was the alleged murderer. In 2010 the three faced trial on murder charges. McCarthy (30) pleaded guilty to lesser charges and testified against the others. The plot to kill Lambert, sell his home and take his assets also included Danny Garcia and SF attorney David Replogle. On Dec 3, 2011, Replogle and Bustamante were convicted of 10 criminal counts including first-degree murder. On Sep 7, 2012, Niroula and Garcia were convicted of first-degree murder and other charges.
(SSFC, 5/23/10, p.A17)(SSFC, 9/5/10, p.C3)(SFC, 1/4/11, p.C2)(SFC, 9/8/12, p.C4)
2008 Dec 5, Nina Foch (b.1924), Dutch-born Hollywood film star, died in Los Angeles. Her films included “An American in Paris" (1951).
(SFC, 12/13/08, p.A5)
2008 Dec 5, In Afghanistan 3 Canadian soldiers were killed by a massive bomb, bringing to 100 the number who have lost their lives since the country's military mission there started in 2002.
(AP, 12/6/08)
2008 Dec 5, Australia's driest state was forced to purchase water for the first time to ensure adequate supplies in the midst of a drought. Karlene Maywald, state water security minister, said South Australia has purchased 61 billion gallons (231 gigaliters) of water so that Adelaide, the state capital, will have enough water for 2009 even if the drought continues.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, In southern China about 100 factory owners and employees held up red protest banners outside a government building, demanding that officials help them collect more than $13 million in debts from an electronics factory that recently closed.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, In northeast Colombia suspected leftist rebels attacked a small police convoy with explosives and automatic weapons, killing eight police officers and wounding one. Police blamed the attack on the National Liberation Army (ELN), which operates in the oil-producing region bordering Venezuela.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, A boat from the Dominican Republic was found adrift. 2 survivors were found by fisherman and 49 others were presumed dead. Migrants had set off on Nov 13 in search of jobs in Puerto Rico.
(AP, 12/6/08)
2008 Dec 5, India and Russia signed a civilian nuclear deal that would see Russia build four nuclear reactors for power-starved India.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, Police in India arrested two Indian men accused of illegally buying mobile phone cards used by the gunmen in the Mumbai attacks. In eastern India suspected Maoist rebels killed five police officers in an ambush.
(AP, 12/6/08)(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, Iranian state radio said police confirmed that a militant group active in Iran has killed all 16 police officers it abducted in June. Shortly after the abduction, the Sunni Muslim Jundallah group said it had executed two of the officers and threatened to kill the remaining 14 unless imprisoned members of the group were released.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, In Iraq three women were killed in Balad Ruz, north of Baghdad, when a bomb planted in a radio exploded.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, Israeli defense officials reinstated a ban on international journalists entering the Gaza Strip, despite protests from the heads of major news organizations and an appeal to the country's Supreme Court.
(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 5, Japan approved a law that will grant citizenship to all children born out of wedlock to Japanese fathers who acknowledge them, regardless of the nationality of their mothers.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, Kyrgyzstan's state radio station was reported to have taken BBC programming off the airwaves, days after withdrawing broadcasting rights from US-funded Radio Liberty's Kyrgyz Service.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, Gerardo Garay, Mexico's former acting federal police chief, was accused of collaborating with a notorious cartel and stealing money from a mansion during a raid to bust a drug trafficking ring. Victor Serrano (24), a hit team chief, was wounded and 3 alleged gang members died in a shootout in Mexicali. 14 others were arrested.
(AP, 12/5/08)(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 5, In Pakistan a car bomb devastated a busy street in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing 30 people and injuring about a hundred.
(AP, 12/5/08)(AP, 12/6/08)(Econ, 12/13/08, p.50)
2008 Dec 5, In Romania Constantin Ticu Dumitrescu (80), once jailed as a communist-era "enemy of the state," died after years of fighting to reveal details of the country's troubled past.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II (79) died. He had presided over a vast post-Soviet revival of faith but struggled against the influence of other churches.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, In Saudi Arabia nearly 3 million Muslims from all over the world gathered in Mecca, on the eve of the start of the annual hajj pilgrimage.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, In Somalia 12 people were killed as mortar shells rained down on homes and a small market in Mogadishu.
(SFC, 12/6/08, p.A5)
2008 Dec 5, In southern Thailand 4 people were killed by a bomb at a drugstore suspected to have been planted by Muslim insurgents.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, The leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan met for Turkish-sponsored talks aimed at reducing tensions over militant attacks along the countries' lawless border.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2009 Dec 5, The Defense Advance Research projects Agency (DARPA) conducted an experiment challenging teams around the country to locate the submit the correct geographic coordinates of 10 weather balloons in return for a $40,000 cash prize. Over 4,000 teams participated and the winning answer came after 8 hours and 56 minutes. Social networking sites played a major role in the game theory simulation. Riley Crane, a post doc research fellow at MIT’s media lab, led the winning team using an elaborate information gathering pyramid.
(SFC, 12/7/09, p.A9)
2009 Dec 5, It was reported that US federal regulators have approved the use of the name Calistoga as an appellation for vintners in Calistoga, Ca. James Barrett, proprietor of the Chateau Montelena winery, had begun petitioning the Treasury Dept. for the name in 2003.
(SFC, 12/5/09, p.D1)
2009 Dec 5, In Ohio a barn fire killed two workers and 43 horses at a harness racing track in Lebanon.
(AP, 12/7/09)
2009 Dec 5, Afghan officials said US Marines and Afghan troops have killed at least seven Taliban fighters in Operation Cobra’s Anger in Helmand province. In eastern Afghanistan a US service member was killed by a planted bomb.
(AP, 12/5/09)(AP, 12/6/09)
2009 Dec 5, Australia welcomed a 90 billion dollar (82 billion US) deal to supply liquefied natural gas (LNG) to a Japanese power company in what is believed to be the country's biggest export sales contract.
(AFP, 12/6/09)
2009 Dec 5, Austrian artist Alfred Hrdlicka (81) died. His controversial works in metal, paint and pencil alienated as much as attracted the public.
(AP, 12/5/09)
2009 Dec 5, In Equatorial Guinea Gen. Sekouba Konate, the No. 2 of the military junta, returned to the country overnight, helping fill a dangerous power vacuum after the president was shot by his top aide and evacuated for emergency treatment.
(AP, 12/5/09)
2009 Dec 5, In Haiti Francesco Fantoli (54), an Italian journalist, was mortally wounded by gunmen who may have tried to rob him outside a bank in Port-au-Prince. He recently founded a soccer school in the southern city of Jacmel, where he often lived.
(AP, 12/6/09)
2009 Dec 5, In Indonesia an ecumenical group launched more than 10,000 twinkling paper lanterns into the night sky above Carnaval Beach in Jakarta, setting a world record. Freedom Faithnet Global said it organized the lantern release as a symbol of hope and prayer as part of annual celebrations. This year's celebrations have an environmental focus.
(AP, 12/7/09)
2009 Dec 5, In Italy thousands of people gathered in Rome for “No Berlusconi Day," a gathering born on the Internet to protest against Premier Silvio Berlusconi.
(Econ, 12/5/09, p.61)(http://tinyurl.com/yhy5mnt)
2009 Dec 5, Italian police found convicted Mafioso Gianni Nicchi (28), alleged to be Cosa Nostra's No. 2 leader, hiding in an apartment in Palermo. Nicchi, a fugitive since 2006, was convicted last year of extortion and sentenced to 18 years in prison. Authorities in Milan arrested Gaetano Fidanzati (74) as he strolled down a street. Fidanzati is a reputed longtime Cosa Nostra boss of a Palermo crime clan and has been a fugitive for two years.
(AP, 12/5/09)
2009 Dec 5, Italian tax police said that they had seized works by Van Gogh, Picasso, Cezanne and other giants of art in a crackdown on assets hidden by Calisto Tanzi, the disgraced founder of the collapsed dairy company Parmalat.
(AP, 12/5/09)
2009 Dec 5, Morocco expelled five foreign Christian missionaries for holding "undeclared meetings" in the mainly Muslim north African kingdom. Two of the foreigners came from South Africa, two from Switzerland and one from Guatemala. They were part of a group that also included 12 Moroccans, who were freed the same day.
(AFP, 12/8/09)
2009 Dec 5, In western Nepal hundreds of protesters torched vehicles and vandalized shops after three people died in clashes between police and illegal forest settlers.
(AP, 12/5/09)
2009 Dec 5, Philippine Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo placed Maguindanao province under martial law. Government troops were reported to have taken Andal Ampatuan Sr., the former provincial governor, into custody for his clan’s role in the Nov 23 massacre that left 57 dead.
(SFC, 12/5/09, p.A2)
2009 Dec 5, In Russia a blaze sparked by onstage fireworks tore through the Lame Horse nightclub ceiling covered in decorative twigs and plastic sheeting, killing at least 136 people and critically injuring about 90 in the industrial city of Perm in the Ural Mountains. It was the country’s deadliest fire since the fall of the Soviet Union. By late December the death toll reached 152 with 74 people still hospitalized. In 2013 club owner Anatoly Zak was convicted of creating conditions that violate safety regulations. He was sentenced to nine years and 10 months in prison.
(AP, 12/5/09)(AP, 12/10/09)(AP, 12/25/09)(AP, 4/30/13)
2009 Dec 5, In Sudan's Darfur region 2 Rwandan peacekeepers were shot dead and one wounded, in the second deadly attack on their contingent in 24 hours. The next day a former Darfur rebel group captured 3 gunmen who allegedly killed the 5 Rwandan peacekeepers.
(Reuters, 12/5/09)(AFP, 12/8/09)
2009 Dec 5, Taiwan's ruling party lost ground in closely watched local elections described by analysts as a test of China-friendly President Ma Ying-jeou's performance during 19 months in office.
(AFP, 12/5/09)
2010 Dec 5, Pres. Obama honored 5 individuals for this year’s Kennedy Center Honors. They included Oprah Winfrey, Beatle Paul McCartney, dancer-choreographer Bill T. Jones, country singer Merle Haggard, and Broadway composer Jerry Herman.
(SFC, 12/6/10, p.A8)
2010 Dec 5, Don Meredith (72), one of the most recognizable figures of the early Dallas Cowboys and an original member of ABC's "Monday Night Football" broadcast team, died.
(AP, 12/6/10)
2010 Dec 5, In Afghanistan a Taliban suicide bomber blew himself up next to a string of shop stalls inside the eastern Gardez army base, killing two NATO service members and at least two civilians. In the south another NATO service member was killed in an insurgent attack while an Afghan employee of an American contractor was shot dead in the city of Lashkar Gah. A British soldier was killed during an operation in the Nad-e Ali District of Helmand province. Supporting fire from a US aircraft was suspected. He was the 346th death among British forces and civilian defense workers in Afghanistan since 2002. Four Afghan election commission employees were arrested in a sign that the political intrigue over September's fraud-tainted parliamentary election is not over.
(AP, 12/5/10)(AP, 12/6/10)
2010 Dec 5, In Argentina Spanish and Portuguese-speaking nations wrapped up their annual meeting by adopting a provision threatening exclusion for any member country that doesn't abide by democratic process.
(AP, 12/5/10)
2010 Dec 5, Mike Hancock (64), a member of the British House of Commons Defense Committee, and the European Security and Defense Assembly of the Western EU, said that his Russian assistant, Katia Zatuliveter (25), is facing deportation as a suspected spy. On Nov 29, 2011, a special immigration tribunal ruled that Zatuliveter can remain in Britain because she does not pose a threat to national security.
(AP, 12/5/10)(AP, 11/29/11)
2010 Dec 5, In southwest China at least 22 people died and one person was severely burned when a spreading grassland fire swept through a mountainous Tibetan region.
(Reuters, 12/5/10)
2010 Dec 5, Colombian officials said a landslide following weeks of drenching rains has buried more than 50 homes in the northwest. Rescue workers soon recovered 47 bodies. As many as 80 people remained missing and feared dead.
(AP, 12/5/10)(AP, 12/6/10)(AP, 12/8/10)
2010 Dec 5, Egypt held runoff parliamentary elections. President Hosni Mubarak's ruling party won a sweeping victory after the two main opposition groups decided to boycott in protest of alleged fraud in the first round. Mubarak's party won 420 of 508 seats in parliamentary polls.
(AP, 12/5/10)(AP, 12/6/10)(AFP, 12/6/10)
2010 Dec 5, A shark tore the arm off an elderly German tourist at an Egyptian Red Sea resort, killing her almost immediately, only days after sharks badly mauled four other European tourists in the waters.
(AP, 12/5/10)
2010 Dec 5, Iran claimed it could now use domestically mined uranium to produce nuclear fuel, giving the country complete control over a process the West suspects is geared toward producing weapons.
(AP, 12/5/10)
2010 Dec 5, An Israeli fire department official said the huge forest fire in Israel's north is under control. The fire burned half of one of Israel's largest wooded areas over four days. 42 Israelis were killed in the fire.
(AP, 12/5/10)(AP, 1/5/11)
2010 Dec 5, In southern Italy a speeding car plowed head-on into a group of cyclists, killing eight of them. Police said the driver had been smoking marijuana.
(AP, 12/5/10)
2010 Dec 5, In Mexico armed commandos attacked two drug rehabilitation centers in Ciudad Juarez, killing four people and wounding five.
(AP, 12/6/10)
2010 Dec 5, Nigeria's military acknowledged that raids in pursuit of an alleged gang leader in the main oil-producing region may have killed civilians, but insisted only militants were targeted. On Dec 15 the military said 14 people, including 8 soldiers and 6 civilians, were killed during the operation targeting a notorious gang leader.
(AFP, 12/5/10)(AFP, 12/15/10)
2010 Dec 5, Russian news reported that a Proton rocket and its payload of three GLONASS-M navigation satellites has fallen into the Pacific Ocean after failing to reach orbit. They were to be part of Russia's satellite navigation system competing with the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS). The mishap eventually cost space chief Anatoly Perminov his job.
(AP, 12/5/10)(AP, 8/18/11)
2010 Dec 5, Suspected Somali pirates hijacked the M.V. Jahan Moni, a Bangladeshi ship carrying nickel ore in the Arabian Sea and appeared to be headed to the lawless East African nation. The 25 Bangladeshis on the cargo ship included the wife of one crewman. The Moni was released on March 14, 2011, followed a ransom said to be $4.2 million.
(AP, 12/6/10)(AP, 3/14/11)
2010 Dec 5, Former South African leader Thabo Mbeki sought to mediate an end to a dispute over Ivory Coast's presidential election that has threatened to trigger unrest in the divided West African nation.
(Reuters, 12/5/10)
2010 Dec 5, In Uruguay Maria Esther Gatti de Islas (92), a human rights activist, died. She helped found Uruguay's organization of relatives of people who disappeared during South America's "dirty wars."
(AP, 12/6/10)
2010 Dec 5, In Venezuela voters in several regions elected governors in two states and mayors in 11 municipalities, including the country's second-largest city. An opposition candidate won the mayorship of Venezuela's second-largest city of Maracaibo. Candidates from Chavez's ruling party captured 7 of the 11 mayorships and one state.
(AP, 12/5/10)(AP, 12/6/10)
2011 Dec 5, The US said it is vacating the Shamsi air base in Pakistan used by American drones that target Taliban and al-Qaida militants, complying with a key demand made by Islamabad in retaliation for the NATO airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.
(AP, 12/5/11)
2011 Dec 5, A team led by astronomers at the University of California, Berkeley, reported the discovery of two gigantic black holes, each one 10 billion times the mass of our sun, in clusters of elliptical galaxies more than 300 million light years away.
(AP, 12/6/11)
2011 Dec 5, NASA scientists reported that a planet dubbed Kepler22b, first detected in 2009, exists in a habitable zone of a solar system 600 light-years away.
(SFC, 12/6/11, p.A1)
2011 Dec 5, Angela Zhang (17) of Cupertino, Ca, won a $100,000 scholarship, at the Siemens Foundation's annual high school science competition, for research that created a tiny particle she likened to a "Swiss army knife of cancer treatments" because of its precision in targeting cancer tumors.
(AP, 12/6/11)
2011 Dec 5, Rachelle Grimmer (38), Texas woman who for months was unable to qualify for food stamps, pulled a gun in a state welfare office and staged a 7-hour standoff with police that ended with her shooting her two children before killing herself. The children, a 10-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl, remained in critical condition. Both children died of their wounds.
(AP, 12/6/11)(AP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 5, In southern Afghanistan a minibus full of civilians struck a roadside bomb, setting off an explosion that killed five passengers in Uruzgan province. Militants abducted 11 Afghan policemen during an ambush in Wardooj district of Badakhshan province. Two policemen were killed and four others wounded during the kidnapping. The 11 policemen were freed on Dec 16 and some two dozen suspected insurgents were arrested.
(AP, 12/5/11)(AP, 12/17/11)
2011 Dec 5, Belgium’s King Albert II named Elio Di Rupo as the prime minister ending a record 541 days the country has gone without a government. Di Rupo will be the first French-speaking prime minister in nearly 40 years.
(SFC, 12/6/11, p.A2)
2011 Dec 5, Brazilian police arrested a man suspected in the shooting deaths of eight men over the past two months. Ronis de Oliveira Bastos (22) was arrested on the outskirts of Sao Paulo while riding a bicycle and armed with a .38 caliber revolver.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 5, In Cameroon 15 people were killed and 40 were seriously injured in a bus crash in the northwest.
(AP, 12/5/11)
2011 Dec 5, In France Greenpeace activists broke into the Electricite de France’s Nogent-sur-Seine plant. EDF said 9 people were arrested.
(SFC, 12/6/11, p.A2)
2011 Dec 5, France and Germany reached a compromise agreement to seek mandatory limits on budget deficits among debt-laden European governments.
(SFC, 12/6/11, p.A9)
2011 Dec 5, In Bonn, Germany, a global conference on Afghanistan's future opened. It was overshadowed by the absence of key regional player Pakistan. The US and other nations vowed to keep supporting Afghanistan after most foreign forces leave the country in 2014.
(AP, 12/5/11)
2011 Dec 5, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was granted permission to apply to England's highest court in his year-long battle to block his extradition to Sweden over rape and sexual assault allegations.
(AFP, 12/5/11)
2011 Dec 5, Egyptian voters headed to the polls for two days of runoffs in the country's first parliamentary elections since Hosni Mubarak's ouster. Islamist parties have already captured an overwhelming majority of the votes in the first round.
(AP, 12/5/11)
2011 Dec 5, Paris, France, launched an electric car sharing program with 250 vehicles. 3000 vehicles were planned for the program over the next two years.
(SFC, 12/5/11, p.A3)
2011 Dec 5, The world court ruled that Greece was wrong to block Macedonia's bid to join NATO in 2008 because of a long-running dispute over the fledgling country's use of the name Macedonia.
(AP, 12/5/11)
2011 Dec 5, In Iraq 5 bomb attacks targeting Shiite pilgrims south of Baghdad killed some 30 people and wounded nearly 100 others during Ashura, an important religious ritual for the Muslim sect.
(AP, 12/5/11)(Econ, 1/21/12, p.52)
2011 Dec 5, Ireland’s Expenditure Minister Brendan Howlin announced $2.9 billion in spending cuts to help reduce the country’s debt. Budget cuts will close 31 police stations around the country.
(SSFC, 12/11/11, p.A4)
2011 Dec 5, Kenya military jets bombed two al-Shabab camps in Somalia, killing an unknown number of militants. 5 al-Shabab fighters on a boat attacked a Kenyan naval vessel. The navy sunk the attacking boat. A roadside bomb exploded in Kenya’s largest refugee camp near the border with Somalia, killing one police officer and wounding three.
(AP, 12/5/11)(AP, 12/6/11)
2011 Dec 5, Mauritanian police said they have arrested two Western Saharan men suspected of kidnapping an Italian and two Spanish aid workers in Algeria on October 23.
(AFP, 12/5/11)
2011 Dec 5, In the Philippines several armed men abducted Warren Rodwell (53) of Australia from his home in the seaside town of Ipil on Mindanao island, then fled on speed boats. The kidnappers mailed four pictures of Rodwell before Christmas to his Filipino wife then called her to demand an initial ransom of $23,000 (1 million pesos). The ransom was soon raised to $2 million. Rodwell was released on March 23, 2013. On May 15, 2015, Jun Malban, a former Philippine policeman and cousin of one of the nation's top Islamic militants, was deported from Malaysia back to the Philippines for his role in the abduction.
(AFP, 12/5/11)(AP, 1/1/12)(AP, 1/5/12)(SSFC, 2/24/13, p.A3)(AFP, 5/18/15)
2011 Dec 5, In Russia PM Vladimir Putin's party saw its majority in parliament weaken sharply, according to preliminary election results. International observers pointed to procedural violations and serious indications of ballot stuffing after a campaign slanted in favor of United Russia. Only seven parties were allowed to field candidates for parliament this year, while the most vocal opposition groups were barred from the race.
(AP, 12/5/11)
2011 Dec 5, Scottish artist Martin Boyce (44), whose works include a modernist reworking of a library table and artificial trees, won Britain's Turner Prize at a ceremony in Gateshead, north-east England.
(AFP, 12/5/11)
2011 Dec 5, In Slovenia preliminary results show Positive Slovenia, a center-left party, defeated the favored conservatives. The results also indicated that women won 28 of 90 seats, the most since the country gained independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1991.
(AP, 12/5/11)
2011 Dec 5, Johannesburg police fired rubber bullets to break up a group of demonstrators gathered in front of the ruling ANC party headquarters to protest South Africa's alleged involvement in fraud in the November 28 election in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
(AFP, 12/5/11)
2011 Dec 5, In South Africa Global Witness said it has left the Kimberley Process, accusing the international diamond regulatory group of refusing to address links between diamonds, violence and tyranny. The rights watchdog cited what it called failures in Ivory Coast, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.
(AP, 12/5/11)
2011 Dec 5, In Syria 36 bodies were dumped in the streets of Homs. Syria agreed to allow Arab League observers but demanded that the Arab League scrap recent decisions taken against Damascus, including economic sanctions and suspending the country from the Arab League when a protocol allowing observers is signed.
(AP, 12/5/11)(AP, 12/6/11)(SFC, 12/6/11, p.A5)(SFC, 12/7/11, p.A4)
2011 Dec 5, The UN Security Council toughened sanctions against Eritrea which neighboring governments accuse of plotting terrorist attacks and supporting Somali Islamist rebels.
(AFP, 12/5/11)
2011 Dec 5, Vietnam officials said more than 100,000 people have been killed or injured by land mines or other abandoned explosives since the Vietnam War ended nearly 40 years ago, and clearing all of the country will take decades more. The United States used about 16 million tons of bombs and ammunition while allied with the former South Vietnam government.
(AP, 12/5/11)
2011 Dec 5, In Yemen two women were killed and six people were wounded when Pres. Saleh's forces fired on a crowd of anti-regime protesters in Taez.
(AFP, 12/6/11)
2012 Dec 5, Dave Brubeck (b.1920), American pianist, jazz composer and band leader, died one day short of his 92nd birthday.
(SFC, 12/6/12, p.A1)
2012 Dec 5, Argentina filed complaints with the World Trade Organization (WTO) over trade barriers it blames for keeping its beef and lemons out of the United States and blocking biodiesel sales to Europe.
(AP, 12/5/12)
2012 Dec 5, It was reported that Brazilian law enforcement agencies have begun “Operation Purification" against alleged corruption iwthin the police force in Rio de Janeiro state.
(SFC, 12/5/12, p.A2)
2012 Dec 5, Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer (104) died in Rio de Janeiro. He had designed Brazil's futuristic capital and much of the United Nations complex.
(AP, 12/6/12)(Econ, 12/22/12, p.154)
2012 Dec 5, In Canada a court ruled that Toronto Mayor Rob Ford can stay in power pending an appeal of a conflict of interest ruling that ordered him out of his job as leader of Canada's biggest city. Ford won his appeal.
(Reuters, 12/5/12)(Econ, 4/13/13, p.42)
2012 Dec 5, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi's supporters and opponents clashed outside the presidential palace in Cairo, pelting each other with rocks and fighting with sticks. At least 5 people were killed.
(AP, 12/5/12)(Econ, 12/8/12, p.51)
2012 Dec 5, Guatemala police arrested software company founder John McAfee for entering the country illegally, ending his bizarre weekslong journey as a blogging fugitive claiming to be persecuted by authorities in Belize.
(AP, 12/6/12)
2012 Dec 5, In Indonesia Jakarta police spokesman Col. Rikwanto said any police officer over 100kg (220 pounds) must follow a weight-loss program started because of the growing number of overweight officers and the perception that they are unable to provide public protection.
(AP, 12/5/12)
2012 Dec 5, In Iran a magnitude 5.5 earthwuake hit South Khorasan province late today. At least 6 people were killed.
(AP, 12/6/12)
2012 Dec 5, Kenya’s Lewa Wildlife Conservancy said that two male black rhinos and two female black rhinos were killed over the weekend. The four deaths brought Lewa's rhino population to 71. Kenya had about 600 rhinos in total.
(AP, 12/5/12)
2012 Dec 5, In Lebanon gunmen loyal to opposite sides in neighboring Syria's civil war battled in the streets of Tripoli where two days of fighting killed at least five people and wounded 45.
(AP, 12/5/12)
2012 Dec 5, The 148m (485-foot) Baltic Ace sank after colliding with the 134m (440-foot) container ship Corvus J in darkness near busy shipping lanes some 65 kilometers (40 miles) off the coast of the southern Netherlands. 5 bodies were recovered and 6 others remained missing.
(AP, 12/6/12)(SFC, 12/7/12, p.A2)
2012 Dec 5, In Northern Ireland more than 1,500 Protestants rallied in the northern suburb of Carrickfergus demanding that the British flag be restored atop Belfast's municipal headquarters. The protest soon descended into attacks on riot police.
(AP, 12/6/12)
2012 Dec 5, In northwestern Pakistan a pair of suicide bombers rammed their truck filled with explosives into the gate of an army camp, killing three soldiers and wounding more than 20 in Wana, South Waziristan.
(AP, 12/5/12)
2012 Dec 5, In Russia’s North Caucuses region journalist Kazbek Gekkiyev was gunned down in Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkariya province.
(SFC, 12/7/12, p.A2)
2012 Dec 5, A South African judge sentenced Xolile Mngeni, the triggerman in the 2010 honeymoon slaying of Swedish bride Anni Dewani, to life in prison, calling the shooter "a merciless and evil person" who deserved the maximum punishment for his crime.
(AP, 12/5/12)
2012 Dec 5, A South African judge sentenced hip-hop star Molemo Maarohanye, best known by his stage name Jub Jub, and Themba Tshabalala, to 25 years each in prison for the killings of four schoolchildren in a drag-race crash on March 8, 2010.
(AP, 12/5/12)
2012 Dec 5, The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa announced that it has accepted a $5.8 billion deal with French company Alstom SA to refurbish the nation's passenger trains.
(AP, 12/5/12)
2012 Dec 5, A South African military aircraft on an unknown mission to an area near former President Nelson Mandela's village crashed in a mountain range, killing all 11 people onboard.
(AP, 12/6/12)
2012 Dec 5, Transparency International ranked Uganda at 130 out of 176 countries. An audacious scam in which up to $13 million in donor money was embezzled in the office of Uganda's prime minister has brought several European donors to freeze aid to Uganda.
(AP, 12/5/12)
2013 Dec 5, The US Defense Department said Djamel Saiid Ali Ameziane and Bensayah Belkecem, two Algerian detainees at the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, have been repatriated despite protest from the prisoners who feared persecution.
(AFP, 12/5/13)
2013 Dec 5, In the US fast food workers held some 100 rallies across the country calling for an increase in the minimum wage from the current $7.25/hr.
(SFC, 12/6/13, p.C7)
2013 Dec 5, A study by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said water pollution at the Camp Lejeune military base in North Carolina has been linked to increased risk of birth defects and childhood cancers.
(Reuters, 12/6/13)
2013 Dec 5, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signed landmark legislation to reform the state’s underfunded pension system. The reforms cut benefits for most employees and retirees. Unions immediately threatened a lawsuit. On may 8, 2015, the state Supreme Court struck down the legislation saying it would leave pension promises diminished or impaired.
(SFC, 12/6/13, p.A10)(SFC, 5/9/15, p.A5)
2013 Dec 5, Australia and Indonesia announced that they would set up a hotline as part of efforts to repair relations following media reports last month that Canberra had spied on top Indonesian officials.
(Reuters, 12/5/13)
2013 Dec 5, Heavy gunfire erupted in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic. French troops killed several rebels who were bearing down on them in a pickup truck. Ex-Seleka fighters stormed Amite Hospital and abducted at least nine patients by gunpoint in front of horrified medical staff. The bodies of 11 young men were later found just outside the hospital. Over 280 people were killed in the violence in Bangui.
(AP, 12/5/13)(AP, 12/6/13)(AP, 12/8/13)
2013 Dec 5, Ethiopia said it has repatriated over 100,000 citizens from Saudi Arabia, following a violent crackdown against illegal immigrants in the oil-rich kingdom.
(AFP, 12/5/13)
2013 Dec 5, In Iraq gunmen shot dead magazine editor Kawa Ahmed Germyani (32). He was investigating corruption in the autonomous Kurdistan region. Police stormed a mall in Kirkuk killing 3 militants. Attacks elsewhere in the country left 7 dead.
(AFP, 12/6/13)(SFC, 12/6/13, p.A2)
2013 Dec 5, Kenyan lawmakers adopted amendments to a controversial media bill despite an opposition walk out and international concern about press freedom.
(AFP, 12/5/13)
2013 Dec 5, In Libya unknown assailants shot an American teacher to death as he was jogging in Benghazi.
(AP, 12/5/13)
2013 Dec 5, Moldova’s Constitutional Court ruled that Romanian is now the official language. The language, basically the same as Romanian, had been renamed Moldovan under Soviet rule.
(SFC, 12/6/13, p.A2)
2013 Dec 5, Myanmar’s Rangoon Univ. reopened to undergraduates. It had been closed since 1988 following failed student uprisings.
(SFC, 12/5/13, p.A6)
2013 Dec 5, In southwest Pakistan a bomb exploded outside a mosque in Chaman, the main border town in southwestern Baluchistan, killing at least one person.
(AP, 12/5/13)
2013 Dec 5, Russia said it has begun a criminal inquiry into suspected child trafficking in the US following a Reuters investigation which found that adopted children, some born in Russia, were being traded via the Internet.
(Reuters, 12/5/13)
2013 Dec 5, Hurricane-force gusts hit Scotland, causing a fatal truck accident, halting all trains and leaving tens of thousands of homes without electricity.
(AP, 12/5/13)
2013 Dec 5, In Somalia at least 8 people were killed when a suicide car bomber rammed a convoy in the northern port of Bossasso, a Puntland region harboring Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab insurgents where tensions are high ahead of elections in January.
(AFP, 12/5/13)
2013 Dec 5, In South Africa former President and anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela (b.1918) died. He shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.
(AP, 12/6/13)
2013 Dec 5, The South African Cabinet ordered that an inter-ministerial task team report on the funding of controversial security upgrades to President Jacob Zuma's private home be released to the public.
(AP, 12/5/13)
2013 Dec 5, In Sudan a tribal dispute on the border of the Darfur region killed 38 people including 16 Maaliya and 22 Hamar tribesmen.
(AFP, 12/11/13)
2013 Dec 5, Sweden's public broadcaster said it has obtained secret documents leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden suggesting a Swedish spy agency has been a key supplier of intelligence on Russian leaders to the NSA.
(AP, 12/5/13)
2013 Dec 5, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Jihadists in northern Syria have kidnapped more than 50 Kurds in the past three days.
(AFP, 12/5/13)
2013 Dec 5, In Yemen a suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laden car at the Defense Ministry in Sanaa, killing 18 soldiers and wounding at least 40. Officials said 11 gunmen also were killed in a firefight between troops and a carload of attackers who arrived after the blast. Gunmen shot and killed a Western doctor and a Filipina nurse in front of their colleagues in a hospital inside the compound of the defense ministry. Most of the attackers were Saudi nationals. Yemen’s branch of al-Qaida took responsibility and on Dec 21 apologized for the attack on the hospital that killed 52 people.
(Reuters, 12/5/13)(Reuters, 12/6/13)(SFC, 12/7/13, p.A4)(AP, 12/22/13)
2014 Dec 5, President Barack Obama nominated ex-Pentagon official Ashton Carter as the new defense secretary of the country. He will replace Chuck Hagel.
(Reuters, 12/5/14)
2014 Dec 5, NASA’s Orion spacecraft made its first test flight following liftoff at Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The 4.5 hour test flight ended in the Pacific Ocean off Mexico.
(Reuters, 12/5/14)(SFC, 12/6/14, p.C1)
2014 Dec 5, A Phoenix cop shot to death an unarmed black man during a fight and the authorities said the cop thought the person had a pistol.
(Reuters, 12/5/14)
2014 Dec 5, Bill Cosby's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was reported vandalized with graffiti. Los Angeles police were investigating the vandalism of comedian.
(Reuters, 12/5/14)
2014 Dec 5, A San Francisco court convicted police officers Edmond Robles of five felony charges and Sgt. Ian Furminger guilty of four in a case related to officers stealing from drug dealers. On Feb 23, 2015, Furminger was sentenced to 41 months in prison. On March 18, 2015, Robles was sentenced to 39 months in prison.
(SFC, 12/6/14, p.A1)(SFC, 1/24/15, p.A1)(SFC, 3/19/15, p.E1)
2014 Dec 5, It was reported that San Francisco had accrued a budget surplus of almost $22 million for the last fiscal year.
(SFC, 12/5/14, p.D1)
2014 Dec 5, The US Department of Justice said that it’s investigating several complains concerning the University of New Mexico's conduct of reported sexual assaults & sexual persecution of students.
(Reuters, 12/5/14)
2014 Dec 5, Fabiola (86), Belgium's dowager queen, died. The Spanish-born Fabiola survived her husband, King Baudouin, by 11 years.
(AP, 12/12/14)
2014 Dec 5, The British Museum plunged into a geopolitical tempest by lending one of the disputed Greek Elgin Marbles to Russia’s Hermitage Museum.
(SFC, 12/6/14, p.A2)
2014 Dec 5, Chinese authorities arrested ex-domestic security Chief Zhou Yongkang and barred him from the ruling Communist Party.
(Reuters, 12/5/14)
2014 Dec 5, A French-US fund announced it will pay thousands of Holocaust survivors and family members in the United States and elsewhere will be entitled to compensation from a $60 million.
(Reuters, 12/5/14)
2014 Dec 5, German Chancellor Angela Merkel shook hands with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and said her country will continue to support Afghanistan after NATO combat troops pull out from the country.
(Reuters, 12/5/14)
2014 Dec 5, In India’s section of Kashmir a series of rebel attacks killed 21 people, including 8 Indian soldiers and 3 police officers. The rebels had crossed over from Pakistani territory.
(AP, 12/8/14)(Econ, 12/13/14, p.41)
2014 Dec 5, In India Uber taxi driver Shiv Kumar Yadav raped a young female passenger (25) in New Delhi. On Nov 3, 2015, Yadav was sentenced to life in prison.
(AFP, 10/20/15)(AP, 11/3/15)
2014 Dec 5, Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court withdrew their crimes against humanity charges against Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta. Kenyatta said he was "vindicated" after the ICC's decision.
(Reuters, 12/5/14)(SFC, 12/6/14, p.A4)
2014 Dec 5, The government of Maldives declared a state of emergency and has appealed for aid from India, Sri Lanka, the United States and China. Mohamed Shareef, a government minister, said: "We have declared a state of crisis and also informed the shopkeepers to issue bottle water free of charge."
(Reuters, 12/5/14)
2014 Dec 5, In Pakistan a 300-mile trench being built along the disputed border with Afghanistan was reported to have completed 110 miles in Baluchistan province.
(SFC, 12/5/14, p.A7)
2014 Dec 5, In Russia a court in Volgograd convicted four men for their roles in the twin suicide bombings that killed 34 people a year earlier.
(SFC, 12/6/14, p.A2)
2014 Dec 5, In Sierra Leone two more doctors died of Ebola bringing to 9 the number of local doctors killed by the disease.
(SSFC, 12/7/14, p.A4)
2014 Dec 5, Spain’s Marine Rescue Service rescued 29 African migrants from the 33-foot-long boat after finding it drifting in the Mediterranean Sea. Some 23 migrants were swept away to sea. On Jan 15 Police said two Cameroonian migrants have been arrested for allegedly killing up to 10 others by pushing them from the boat into stormy waters in a fight over a prayer session.
(AP, 12/8/14(AP, 1/15/15)
2014 Dec 5, In Syria clashes continued for a 2nd day as IS militants pushed to capture the Syrian air base at Deor el-Zour. 30 government troops and 27 jihadists were said to have died so far.
(SFC, 12/6/14, p.A3)
2014 Dec 5, Tashi Tsering (b.1929), Tibetan scholar, died in Lhasa. He was the founder of the corresponding education organization with headquarters in Lhasa, as well as the author of the trilingual dictionary (English, Chinese, Tibetan) “New Trilingual Dictionary" and an autobiography titled “The Struggle for Modern Tibet" (first published in 1999 by M.E. Sharpe).
(http://tinyurl.com/mp2bjlz)(Econ, 12/20/14, p.138)
2014 Dec 5, Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko said "If we give up Donetsk (airport), the enemy will be at Borispil or Gostomel or even in Lviv."
(Reuters, 12/5/14)
2015 Dec 5, The United States and its allies conducted 17 air strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and 12 in Syria.
(Reuters, 12/6/15)
2015 Dec 5, The New York Times published an editorial on its front page for the first time since 1920, using the rare, prominent placement to urge gun control following the latest mass shooting in the United States.
(AFP, 12/5/15)
2015 Dec 5, The Afghan Taliban released an audio message it said was from leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour, vehemently rejecting reports of his death in a firefight with his own commanders as "enemy propaganda".
(AFP, 12/5/15)
2015 Dec 5, A ship carrying 25 tons of radioactive waste arrived back in Australia, met by activists who warned against the vast nation becoming a nuclear dumping ground. Australia sent spent nuclear fuel to France for reprocessing in the 1990s and early 2000s over four shipments, and it has now been returned for long-term storage.
(AFP, 12/5/15)
2015 Dec 5, In northern Bangladesh unidentified attackers hurled three homemade bombs on the premises of a Hindu temple during a drama performance early today, injuring 10 people outside the Kantajir temple during an annual fair in Dinajpur district.
(AP, 12/5/15)
2015 Dec 5, In Britain Storm Desmond whipped across the country. A 90-year-old man died near a north London Underground station after he was apparently blown against the side of a moving bus.
(AFP, 12/6/15)
2015 Dec 5, Muhaydin Mire (29) slashed a man (56) at the east London Leytonstone metro station, reportedly screaming "this is for Syria", in what police described as a terrorist incident. On June 8 a British court convicted Mire, a mentally ill taxi driver, of attempted murder.
(Reuters, 12/6/15)(AFP, 12/7/15)(AP, 6/8/16)
2015 Dec 5, In Chad four female suicide bombers attacked the Chadian island of Koulfoua on Lake Chad. State TV said the provisional death toll was 19 dead, including the four kamikazes, and 130 injured.
(Reuters, 12/5/15)
2015 Dec 5, Chinese media reported that Zhang Yun (56), head of the country’s 4th largest state bank, has resigned citing personal reasons amid reports of his involvement in a corruption investigation.
(SSFC, 12/6/15, p.A6)
2015 Dec 5, In France negotiators from 195 nations delivered a blueprint for a pact to save mankind from disastrous global warming. Negotiators agreed to a draft accord that still leaves hundreds of points of dispute for ministers to resolve next week.
(AFP, 12/5/15)(Reuters, 12/5/15)
2015 Dec 5, Guyana's Government Information Agency said British petroleum giant Tullow Oil PLC will be awarded an exploration license near an offshore basin where Exxon Mobil found large quantities of oil and gas in May.
(AP, 12/5/15)
2015 Dec 5, Iraqi President Fouad Massoum called the deployment of several hundred Turkish troops inside Iraq near the northern city of Mosul "a violation of international norms and law".
(Reuters, 12/5/15)
2015 Dec 5, In northern Lebanon suspected Islamist militant Mohammed Hamzeh killed himself, his wife and his mother, when he blew himself up during an army raid on his home in Deir Ammar.
(Reuters, 12/5/15)
2015 Dec 5, Lawmakers from Libya's two rival parliaments signed a declaration of principles aimed at ending the North African country's civil conflict.
(Reuters, 12/6/15)
2015 Dec 5, Malaysia's police said that they have arrested five people, including a European employed as a teacher, on suspicion of links with militant groups like the Islamic State and al-Qaeda. The arrests were made between Nov. 17 and Dec 1.
(Reuters, 12/5/15)
2015 Dec 5, Nigeria's intelligence agency said it has arrested nine alleged Boko Haram extremists plotting attacks on Abuja, the capital, over the festive season. All nine were detained in the past month and had infiltrated the capital in central Nigeria from the country's northeast.
(AP, 12/5/15)
2015 Dec 5, The main islands of the Seychelles voted in a presidential election with incumbent James Michel facing his first serious challenge after two terms in office. No candidate got more than 50 percent of the votes cast. A run-off was scheduled to be held in two weeks between incumbent President James Michel, Leader of the ruling Lepep party, and Wavel Ramkalawan, leader of the Seychelles National Party.
(AFP, 12/5/15)(Reuters, 12/6/15)
2015 Dec 5, Slovakia's leftist PM Robert Fico (51) promised to protect voters from international terrorism and unveiled a billion euro welfare plan as he launched campaign for a third term in office.
(Reuters, 12/5/15)
2015 Dec 5, Thousands of South Koreans, many wearing masks, marched in Seoul against conservative President Park Geun-hye, who had compared masked protesters to terrorists after clashes with police broke out at a rally last month.
(AP, 12/5/15)
2015 Dec 5, Syrian Turkmen rebel fighters seized three villages from the Islamic State group near the Turkish border in clashes over the last 24 hours that killed 13 from the ethnic minority.
(AFP, 12/5/15)
2015 Dec 5, In Turkey 3 members of the security forces were killed in clashes with militants the mainly Kurdish southeast.
(Reuters, 12/5/15)
2015 Dec 5, Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi met with a UN envoy in Aden to agree on peace talks with Shiite Houthi rebels set to begin in mid-December.
(AP, 12/5/15)
2015 Dec 5, In Yemen masked gunmen killed prominent Judge Mohsen Alwan, who was known for sentencing al-Qaida militants to prison in the southern port city of Aden.
(AP, 12/5/15)
2016 Dec 5, Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, a rival-turned-supporter of Donald Trump, overcame his stated qualms about a lack of government experience to accept the president-elect's nomination to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
(Reuters, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 5, The US State Dept. said that a fake US Embassy in Ghana has been shut down after operating for about a decade in Accra.
(SFC, 12/6/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 5, North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) ended his legal challenges to the election, conceding that he had lost his bid for a second term to Democrat Roy Cooper.
(CSM, 12/6/16)
2016 Dec 5, Brazilian police raided the homes of two former members of a parliamentary inquiry into graft at state oil company Petrobras, seeking evidence they extorted money from contractors who wanted to avoid being summoned as witnesses.
(Reuters, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 5, A Gambian court freed a prominent lawyer and 18 other political prisoners on bail pending an appeal of their jail sentence for "unlawful assembly", in a sign that President Yahya Jammeh's shock election defeat last week could end years of repression.
(Reuters, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 5, German police in the western city of Bochum arrested an Iraqi asylum-seeker (31) on suspicion of sexually assaulting two Chinese students. DNA evidence linked the man to an attack and attempted rape of a Chinese woman (21) in August, and of raping a Chinese woman (27) in November.
(AP, 12/6/16)
2016 Dec 5, Germany-based Volkswagen said it is launching a new company dedicated to car sharing and other "mobility services" in which people may need a ride but don't necessarily want to own the car.
(AP, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 5, German airline Air Berlin said it is selling its stake in Austrian carrier NIKI to Abu Dhabi-based Etihad for 300 million euros ($319 million).
(AP, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 5, Officials said a Greek court has refused to extradite the first three of eight Turkish servicemen who fled to Greece after the failed July 15 military coup.
(AP, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 5, Jayaram Jayalalithaa (68), chief minister of India’s Tamil Nadu state, died in Chennai following a massive weekend cardiac arrest. The former movie star who enjoyed god-like status was buried the next day alongside her on-screen lover. V.K. Sasikala, Jayalithaa’s live-in assistant soon claimed the mantle of chief minister forcing out O. Paneerselvam (OPS). On Feb 7 OPS declared that he had been unfairly forced from office by Sasikala.
(AP, 12/6/16)(Econ, 2/11/17, p.33)
2016 Dec 5, Indonesia announced that companies were banned from turning peatlands into palm oil and other types of plantations, and must restore peatlands they have degraded.
(Reuters, 12/6/16)
2016 Dec 5, Western-backed Iraqi forces have begun shelling parts of west Mosul, in preparation for a new front against Islamic State seven weeks into a difficult campaign to drive the militants from the city.
(Reuters, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 5, Doctors working in Kenyan state hospitals went on strike to demand fulfillment of a 2013 agreement between their union and the government that would raise their pay and improve working conditions.
(Reuters, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 5, Forces loyal to Libya's UN-backed government said they had seized full control of Sirte from the Islamic State group, in a major blow to the jihadists who battled for months to retain their bastion.
(AFP, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 5, Mexico struck a deal with Australia’s BHP Billiton to develop the Trion oil field in Mexico with state-oil firm Pemex.
(Econ, 12/10/16, p.62)
2016 Dec 5, Mexican police and marines killed 14 presumed criminal gang members in a shootout in the troubled Gulf coast state of Veracruz. Agents seized 13 assault rifles and a weapon capable of piercing armored vehicles.
(AP, 12/6/16)
2016 Dec 5, New Zealand PM john Key announced that he will submit his resignation on Dec 12 following eight years as leader.
(SFC, 12/6/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 5, Philippine VP Leni Robredo resigned her Cabinet post, citing "major differences in principles and values" with President Rodrigo Duterte and an unspecified plot to remove her from the vice presidency. She continued as VP.
(AP, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 5, Polish authorities said Lufthansa and General Electric will jointly invest some 250 million euros ($270 million) in Poland to build a plant that will service aircraft engines starting in 2018.
(AP, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 5, In northern Somalia soldiers allied to the Western-backed Somali government killed three fighters loyal to the Islamic State in Puntland as they pressed ahead toward the insurgents' main stronghold.
(Reuters, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 5, In Syria opposition rebel shelling in Aleppo killed two nurses and eight civilians.
(SFC, 12/6/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 5, Tunisia’s parliament's finance committee approved a budget draft that would tax lawyers between about $8 to $20 on each file they present to court. The levy was part of austerity measures proposed for 2017 by a government under pressure from international lenders to cut the fiscal deficit.
(Reuters, 12/6/16)
2016 Dec 5, The UN launched a record humanitarian appeal, asking for $22.2 billion in 2017 to help almost 93 million people hit by conflicts and natural disasters.
(AP, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 5, Vietnam punished two editors of a major newspaper which had earlier been fined for publishing what authorities said were false reports on toxic fish sauce. A total of 50 news organizations were fined in November for running reports about high arsenic levels found in fish sauce, causing widespread panic.
(AFP, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 5, In Yemen security officials said Shiite rebels have detained a number of Arab and African nationals, including more than 30 Egyptians, on suspicion of spying for the Saudi-led coalition fighting the rebels.
(AP, 12/5/16)
2017 Dec 5, US Army Colonel Ryan Dillon, spokesman for the United States-led international coalition fighting Islamic State, estimated that fewer than 3,000 fighters belonging to the hardline Sunni militant group remain in Iraq and Syria.
(Reuters, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, In the SF Bay Area unionized city workers of Oakland went on strike to push for better pay, less use of part-time workers and other demands. On Dec. 11 workers agreed to return to work as negotiations continued.
(SFC, 12/6/17, p.A1)(SFC, 12/12/17, p.A1)
2017 Dec 5, In California an overnight fire, known as the Creek Fire, consumed at least 2,500 acres in the foothills of Angeles National Forest north, forcing residents of some nearby San Fernando Valley communities north of Los Angeles to flee. Four fires in southern California levelled at least 180 structures and forced thousands to flee their homes. The Thomas fire in Ventura County remained out of control.
(Reuters, 12/5/17)(SFC, 12/6/17, p.A1)
2017 Dec 5, US Democratic Rep. John Conyers (88) of Michigan, the longest-serving member of the House, resigned following a number of sexual misconduct allegations in recent weeks.
(SFC, 12/6/17, p.A5)
2017 Dec 5, It was reported that an Argentine judge has ordered the arrest of Paraguay midfielder Jonathan Fabbro for alleged sexual assault of an underage girl.
(AP, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, Australia’s PM Malcolm Turnbull said that foreign interference in politics would be outlawed under updated treason and espionage laws.
(AP, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, Austria’s Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples will be allowed to marry in Austria from 2019, and said a law to the contrary violated the principle of non-discrimination.
(Reuters, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, British PM Theresa May scrambled to salvage a deal over the post-Brexit border in Ireland after it was rejected by her DUP allies. A day earlier Northern Ireland's small Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which keeps her Conservative minority government in office, blocked an agreement on a major issue holding up Brexit talks.
(AFP, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, The European Union put 17 non-EU countries on a blacklist of those it deems guilty of unfairly offering tax avoidance schemes. They Included: American Samoa, Bahrain, Barbados, Grenada, Guam, South Korea, Macau, Marshall Islands, Mongolia, Namibia, Palau, Panama, St. Lucia, Samoa, Trinidad & Tobago, Tunisia and United Arab Emirates. Over 40 more were put on a "grey list" to be monitored until they are fully committed to reforms.
(AP, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, Greek demonstrators in Athens broke into the Labor Ministry and clashed with riot police outside the prime minister's office, in protest against a new agreement between the country and bailout creditors that includes limiting the right to strike.
(AP, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, Mayors and residents of Greece's Aegean islands, which are sheltering more than 15,000 refugees and migrants, called for the government to relocate people from overcrowded camps into centers on the mainland.
(AFP, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, Honduras Pres. Juan Orlando Hernandez called late today for the Supreme Electoral Tribunal to re-examine all the votes scrutinized from the Nov. 26 election. He said he would be OK with that "because the people deserve respect." Police officers returned to duty after Pres. Hernandez paid Christmas bonuses, promised salary increases and offered to build apartments for officers.
(AP, 12/6/17)(SFC, 12/6/17, p.A4)
2017 Dec 5, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Iraqi federal and Kurdish regional judiciaries are violating the rights of Islamic State suspects with flawed trials, arbitrary detentions under harsh conditions and broad prosecutions.
(Reuters, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, Lebanese PM Saad Hariri said that he had withdrawn his resignation, a month after his shock announcement that he was quitting sparked political upheaval.
(AFP, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, A Macedonian court ordered three opposition MPs be held in judicial custody for a month while another three were placed under house arrest over an April attack on parliament.
(AFP, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, In Pakistan a roadside bomb killed six people and wounded eight others in Khaddi, a village in the North Waziristan tribal region.
(AP, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said US President Donald Trump informed Abbas that he intends to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem.
(Reuters, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the national police to rejoin anti-drug operations, the second time he has overturned previous decisions to remove the law enforcers from the brutal crackdown amid growing alarm over the deaths of thousands of suspects.
(AP, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, In the Philippines American cameraman and filmmaker Jesse Phinney (42) died in a jail on the island of Cebu. It was later reported that he had suffered blunt-force trauma, and his body had markings inconsistent with the official account by Philippine authorities that he hanged himself. The day before he was found dead, Phinney had been arrested on suspicion of violating human trafficking and child abuse laws.
(Reuters, 4/5/18)
2017 Dec 5, Former Romanian King Michael I (96), who was forced to abdicate by the communists in the aftermath of World War II, died in his residence in Aubonne, Switzerland.
(AP, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, Russia named Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and seven affiliated news services as foreign agents. The Russian parliament prepared to ban the organizations from attending its sessions in response to similar US actions against English-language Russian network RT.
(SFC, 12/6/17, p.A2)
2017 Dec 5, Russia arrested Norwayian pensioner Frode Berg, a former guard working on the Norwegian-Russian border. FSB security service later said it caught the Norwegian taking secret documents about the Russian Navy from a Russian citizen.
(Reuters, 12/19/17)
2017 Dec 5, Saudi Arabia's public prosecutor said most of the people detained in a sweeping anti-corruption campaign launched last month have agreed to settlements to avoid prosecution.
(Reuters, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, Police in the Sicilian capital of Palermo scooped up 25 suspected mobsters on an array of charges, including Maria Angela Di Trapani (49) accused of filling in as boss for her imprisoned husband.
(AP, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, South Korean prosecutors formally charged former spy chiefs Nam Jae-joon and Lee Byung-kee, who were arrested last month over suspicions they used their agency's funds to make illegal payments to former President Park Geun-hye.
(AP, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, Spain's Supreme Court withdrew an international arrest warrant for Carles Puigdemont, Catalonia's former leader, now in self-imposed exile in Belgium after an illegal independence referendum, in a move to bring his case back solely into Spanish jurisdiction.
(Reuters, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, In Syria an explosion ripped through a van in Akarma, near the central city of Homs, killing at least eight people. State news said Syrian air defense units have shot down three Israeli missiles that were targeting a military post near Damascus.
(AP, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, In eastern Syria airstrikes killed at least 12 civilians in al-Jarthi, a village held by the Islamic State group. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Russia carried out the strikes, in support of US-backed, Kurdish-led forces driving to capture IS territory on the Euphrates River. The Observatory said 21 people were killed in the strikes.
(AP, 12/6/17)(Reuters, 12/6/17)
2017 Dec 5, Turkey’s state media said 17 suspects have been detained in an investigation into Reza Zarrab, a Turkish-Iranian gold trader who was once a close ally of the government but is now testifying against officials as a star witness in a high profile US case. Pres. Erdogan said that the case was a "plot" aimed at hurting Turkey.
(AFP, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, Turkish prosecutors launched an investigation following media reports that 11 members of a Turkish folk dancing group were seeking asylum in Hungary.
(AP, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, Ukrainian authorities accused former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili of plotting a coup sponsored by Russia and attempted to arrest him. Supporters of Saakashvili freed him from a police van after his detention on suspicion of assisting a criminal organization led to clashes with police in Kiev. He then led protesters towards parliament, where he called defiantly for President Petro Poroshenko to be removed from office.
(AFP, 12/5/17)(Reuters, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, The United Arab Emirates announced a new partnership with Saudi Arabia, separate from the Gulf Cooperation Council. announcement came just hours ahead of a GCC meeting in Kuwait, to which only Kuwait and Qatar sent their heads of state.
(AP, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, The UN warned of a ticking time bomb of drug-resistant germs brewing in the natural environment, aided by humans dumping antibiotics and chemicals into the water and soil.
(AFP, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, A senior UN official arrived in Pyongyang for a rare, four-day visit at the invitation of the North Korean government.
(AP, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, In Yemen thousands of Huthi supporters rallied in Sanaa as the rebels cemented their grip on the Yemeni capital after killing their former ally ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh. Exiled Ahmed Ali Saleh, the powerful exiled son of slain ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, vowed to lead a campaign against the Houthi movement that killed his father after he switched sides in the civil war.
(AFP, 12/5/17)(Reuters, 12/5/17)
2018 Dec 5, US President Donald Trump urged OPEC members not to slash production at their upcoming meeting, saying global oil prices should remain low.
(AFP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, In Washington DC international dignitaries gathered with US leaders at the funeral service for George H.W. Bush.
(AP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, In the SF Bay Area San Quentin prison officials called an emergency meeting to discuss a possible connection between contraband illegal drugs and the unexplained recent deaths of two Death Row inmates.
(SFC, 12/6/18, p.A1)
2018 Dec 5, In the SF Bay Area Berkeley street poet Julia Vinograd (74), widely known as the Bubble Lady of Telegraph Avenue, died in an Oakland hospital. Her work included 68 collections of verse.
(SSFC, 12/9/18, p.C11)
2018 Dec 5, Afghanistan appointed its first woman to a senior post at the Interior Ministry, naming Hosna Jalil as deputy for policy and strategic affairs.
(AP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, The Albanian government gave in to demands from students and canceled a double charge for repeated exams but said it could do nothing about the level of tuition fees because these are set by the individual institutions, which are partially self-supporting. Students said they would continue the protest until all their demands were fulfilled.
(AP, 12/6/18)
2018 Dec 5, The Australia-based Institute for Economics and Peace recorded nearly 19,000 deaths last year in its annual Global Terrorism Index. That is a decrease of 27 percent from a year earlier and down 44 percent from a peak in 2014.
(AP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, Bosnia's prosecutors office said Dragoljub Kunarac (58), a Bosnian Serb ex-commander who was jailed for 28 years by the UN war crimes tribunal for rape and enslavement in Bosnia's war of the 1990s, has now been indicted over the killing of Muslim civilians.
(Reuters, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, Britain's High Court has ruled that Deliveroo riders do not have the right to collective bargaining, the latest in a series of rulings as U.K. courts grappled with the rise of the so-called "gig economy".
(AP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, Bulgaria's government confirmed that it would not join the United Nations pact for better regulating worldwide migration, set to be adopted later this month.
(AFP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, Bulgarian authorities said they have seized a huge amount of weapons and munitions during police raids in the capital Sofia and a small village in central Bulgaria.
(AP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, Cambodian officials said 32 Cambodian women who were charged with human trafficking for serving as surrogate mothers have been provisionally released from detention after agreeing to keep the babies rather than giving them up as originally planned.
(AP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, China issued an upbeat but vague promise to carry out a tariff cease-fire with Washington but gave no details that might dispel confusion about what Presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump agreed to in Argentina.
(AP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, It was reported that Croatia is suffering a severe labor shortage, most glaringly in its booming seaside tourist resorts, that is compounding obstacles to economic growth and dimming hopes of catching up to more developed EU peers.
(Reuters, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, In northern Cyprus at least four people were killed in flooding late today as hail and rain hammered the island.
(Reuters, 12/6/18)
2018 Dec 5, An Egyptian court sentenced five people, including Mohammed Badie the head of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group, to life in prison on charges related to inciting violence and supporting militants.
(AP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, EU diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini urged Russia and the US to save a Cold War arms control treaty after Washington issued a 60-day ultimatum to Moscow.
(AFP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, Police arrested dozens of suspected mobsters in Europe and South America in dubbed "Operation Pollina," a huge international swoop targeting Italy's notorious 'Ndrangheta mafia clan. Police seized four tons of cocaine, 120 kilos of ecstasy and two million euros (dollars) in cash across Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Suriname.
(AFP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, It was reported that Pinna nobilis, a giant species of clam only found in the Mediterranean Sea, was in danger of extinction due to a mysterious parasite. The mollusk has been the EU's list of protected species for decades.
(SFC, 12/5/18, p.A2)
2018 Dec 5, French trade unions and farmers pledged to join nationwide protests against President Emmanuel Macron, as concessions by the government failed to stem the momentum of the most violent demonstrations France has seen in decades.
(AP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, A Paris court of appeal approved an extradition request by Burkina Faso's government for the brother of ex-Burkinabe president Blaise Compaore.
(Reuters, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, Greece intercepted a Syrian ship sailing for Libya. The Noka was escorted to Heraklion port on the Greek island on Dec. 8, where the authorities unloaded its entire cargo and found about six tons of processed cannabis and 3 million super-strength "Captagon" amphetamine pills worth more than 100 million euros ($113 million).
(Reuters, 12/14/18)
2018 Dec 5, An Indian court remanded to custody British businessman Christian Michel accused of paying bribes to Indian officials to win a helicopter deal for Anglo-Italian firm AgustaWestland, following a rare extradition.
(Reuters, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, Italy was informed by North Korea that acting ambassador Jo Song Gil and his wife had left the North Korean embassy in Rome on Nov. 10 and that their daughter (17) had been repatriated on Nov. 14.
(Reuters, 2/20/19)
2018 Dec 5, In Luxembourg Xavier Bettel started his second term as prime minister, leading a coalition of his liberals along with Socialists and Greens.
(AP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, In central Mali 15 civilians from the Fulani community were killed when armed men from a rival ethnic group attacked their village.
(Reuters, 12/8/18)
2018 Dec 5, Mexico's new Pres. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he will take a three-year break from awarding new oil exploration contracts in order to judge the results of contracts already awarded.
(AP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took aim at the finances of the powerful Jalisco cartel in what a top anti-money laundering official said was the opening salvo in the fight to stop criminal gangs from flourishing with impunity.
(Reuters, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 5, NATO's foreign ministers meeting in Brussels reaffirmed their commitment to stay the course for security in Afghanistan despite mounting Afghan casualties and the slow pace of peace moves.
(AP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, NATO gave Bosnia-Herzegovina the green light to take a major step forward on its path toward joining the world's biggest military alliance, despite Bosnian Serb objections to membership.
(AP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, Young Nepalis created a map of the Dead Sea with used plastic bags in a bid to set a new international record and raise awareness about the vast volumes polluting the world's oceans.
(AFP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, Portugal and China signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation within China's modern Silk Road initiative, with special emphasis on transport connections and energy during a 24-hour state visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
(AP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, Russian President Vladimir Putin voiced support for Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro as he visited Moscow seeking financial assistance for the socialist country's collapsing economy.
(AFP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, Russia warned authorities in Cyprus not to allow the US military to deploy on their territory, saying such a move would draw a Russian reaction and result in "dangerous and destabilizing consequences" for the Mediterranean island.
(Reuters, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, Serbia's PM Ana Brnabic warned that the formation of a Kosovo army could trigger Serbia's armed intervention in the former province.
(AP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, Slovakia's PM Peter Pellegrini said his country has expelled a Russian diplomat after discovering he was a spy working under diplomatic cover.
(AP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, Somali commandos backed by US forces raided two al-Shabab checkpoints overnight at which the extremists extort money from commercial vehicles, killing several fighters.
(AP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, A Spanish regional court confirmed a controversial ruling that cleared five men of gang-raping an 18-year-old woman during Pamplona's 2016 San Fermin festival, a case which led to protests across Spain over chauvinism and sexual abuse. The Navarra court confirmed nine-year prison sentences for the men.
(Reuters, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, The Swiss government chose Ueli Maurer (68) of the anti-immigration Swiss People's Party to become president in 2019. Parliament also elected Viola Amherd of the centrist Christian Democratic Party and Karin Keller-Sutter of the center-right Radical-Liberal Party as two new members of the council, bringing the number of female members to three.
(AP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, Togo's government banned a series of planned opposition protests on security grounds, saying the marches posed a security risk.
(AFP, 12/6/18)
2018 Dec 5, A Turkish court issued arrest warrants for two suspects close to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, increasing pressure on the kingdom's de facto leader.
(AFP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, The UN secretary-general's envoy for Western Sahara met with foreign ministers from Algeria, Morocco and Mauritania plus leaders of the Polisario Front in Geneva over the future of the Morocco-annexed territory.
(AP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, The Vatican launched an investigation into a small Chilean religious order of nuns after some sisters denounced sexual abuse at the hands of priests and mistreatment by their superiors.
(AP, 12/7/18)
2019 Dec 5, US House Speaker Nancy said she was authorizing the drafting of formal impeachment charges against Pres. Donald Trump “sadly but with confidence and humility".
(AP, 12/5/19)
2019 Dec 5, US and British authorities took aim at the Russia-based cybercriminal group known as Evil Corp, indicting two of its leaders, Maksim Yakubets and Igor Turashev, and ordering asset freezes against 17 of its associates over a digital crime spree that has netted more than $100 million from companies across the world.
(Reuters, 12/5/19)
2019 Dec 5, Democratic presidential contender Michael Bloomberg unveiled a gun control policy just steps from the site of one of Colorado's worst mass shootings, calling for a ban on all assault weapons, mandatory permits for gun purchasers and a new position in the White House to coordinate gun violence prevention.
(AP, 12/6/19)
2019 Dec 5, In south Florida four people, including a UPS driver, were killed after robbers stole the driver’s truck and led police on a chase that ended in gunfire at a busy intersection during rush hour in Miramar.
(AP, 12/5/19)
2019 Dec 5, Three Minnesota National Guard crew members were killed when their Black Hawk helicopter crashed south of St. Cloud.
(SFC, 12/6/19, p.A7)
2019 Dec 5, In New York City Dr. Gordon Freedman was convicted of accepting thousands of dollars in bribes and kickbacks from Insys Therapeutics Inc in exchange for prescribing his patients an addictive fentanyl spray the drug manufacturer produced.
(Reuters, 12/6/19)
2019 Dec 5, US federal officials in Massachusetts announced that more than 60 members of the Latin Kings gang have been arrested.
(AP, 12/5/19)
2019 Dec 5, A federal judge in McAllen, Texas, temporarily blocked a plan for a construction firm favored by President Trump to build a privately-funded segment of border wall along the banks of the Rio Grande River. Fisher Industries of North Dakota, recently won a $400 million federal contract to construct 31 miles of barrier along the border near Yuma, Ariz. President Trump has urged the Army Corps of Engineers to hire the North Dakota–based firm, whose head is a major Republican donor and a frequent guest on Fox News. In January, 2020, a federal appeals court ruling freed up construction money for 175 miles of border wall.
(Yahoo News, 12/6/19)(SFC, 12/13/19, p.A9)(SFC, 1/10/20, p.A5)
2019 Dec 5, A report by the Environmental Integrity Project released showed some 30 states have reduced funding for pollution control programs, 16 of them by more than 20%. Forty states, meanwhile, have cut staffing at environmental agencies, half of them by at least 10%. Over the last decade, the US Environmental Protection Agency’s budget and work force have both decreased by 16%, and the Trump administration has proposed slashing the agency’s budget further while shifting more of its work to states.
(Reuters, 12/5/19)
2019 Dec 5, General Motors Co and South Korea's LG Chem said they will invest $2.3 billion to set up an electric vehicle battery cell joint venture plant in Ohio, creating one of the world's largest battery facilities.
(Reuters, 12/5/19)
2019 Dec 5, The Australian Federal Police (AFP) and Australian Border Force (ABF) issued a joint statement saying three people have been charged with importing 1,633 kg (3,600 lbs.) of methamphetamine and heroin into Australia by hiding them inside of stereo speakers originating from Bangkok, Thailand.
(Insider, 12/5/19)
2019 Dec 5, A British judge exonerated three black men who served time in prison 50 years ago based upon the testimony of a corrupt police officer. The group, dubbed the “Oval Four," served eight months in prison but sought to clear their names. A fourth man could not be located to take part in the case.
(AP, 12/5/19)
2019 Dec 5, Burundi authorities said at least 28 people have died in landslides following weeks of heavy rains. Many people remained missing.
(SFC, 12/6/19, p.A2)
2019 Dec 5, The Czech Republic’s defense ministry said it has signed a deal to buy eight mobile MADR 3D radars from Israel for 3.5 billion crowns ($152 million).
(AP, 12/5/19)
2019 Dec 5, French police fired tear gas at protesters in the center of Paris. Public transport ground to a near halt in one of the biggest strikes in France for decades, aimed at forcing President Emmanuel Macron to ditch a planned reform of pensions.
(AP, 12/5/19)
2019 Dec 5, In western Iran an explosion of a heating gas pipe killed at least 11 people and injured 42 others during a wedding ceremony in the predominantly Kurdish city of Saqqez.
(AP, 12/5/19)
2019 Dec 5, In Iraq crowds backing a paramilitary force close to Iran flooded Baghdad's main protest camp, rattling anti-government demonstrators who have denounced Tehran's role in their country. At least 15 people suffered stab wounds in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square.
(AP, 12/5/19)
2019 Dec 5, Uber launched in Ivory Coast's commercial capital Abidjan, part of its expansion into African markets with low levels of car ownership and limited mass transport.
(Reuters, 12/5/19)
2019 Dec 5, A Kosovo court sentenced a former ethnic Serb minister to two years in prison for inciting ethnic hatred. The Pristina court said that Ivan Todosijevic incited national, racial, religious and ethnic hatred when he denied a massacre of Kosovo civilians in Recak in 1999, which prompted NATO to step in and stop the war.
(AP, 12/5/19)
2019 Dec 5, Libya's UN-supported government and US officials accused Russia of deploying mercenaries to fight alongside opponents in the country's civil war. The Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) has documented 600-800 Russian fighters in Libya.
(SFC, 12/6/19, p.A4)
2019 Dec 5, The Silvana III, an oil tanker managed by a Chinese company under US sanctions, anchored off Kuala Kurau on Malaysia's west coast. It did not follow instructions to drop its ladder to allow maritime authorities to conduct checks. After several attempts to instruct the ship to drop ladder were not heeded, the ship lifted anchor and left the location.
(Reuters, 12/11/19)
2019 Dec 5, In Mauritania scores of migrants, who swam through rough Atlantic Ocean waters to safety from a capsized boat, received care after 58 others drowned in one of the deadliest disasters this year among people making the perilous journey to Europe. The boat had left Gambia a week ago carrying at least 150 people, including women and children.
(AP, 12/5/19)
2019 Dec 5, Russian state nuclear company Rosatom said it has suspended work on revamping a factory at Iran's Fordow nuclear complex due to an issue with uranium compatibility.
(Reuters, 12/5/19)
2019 Dec 5, Samoa's government told most public and private workers to stay at home and shut down roads to nonessential vehicles as teams began going door-to-door to administer vaccines against the measles epidemic that has killed 62 people.
(SFC, 12/6/19, p.A4)
2019 Dec 5, Slovakia’s police said they have charged former PM Robert Fico with racism for his comments about the embattled Roma minority.
(AP, 12/5/19)
2019 Dec 5, South Africa was hit by power cuts after a number of generating units broke down, forcing the struggling state power utility Eskom to cut up to 2,000 megawatts (MW) of power from the national grid on a rotational basis.
(Reuters, 12/5/19)
2020 Dec 5, Pres. Trump reportedly called Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) and requested that he call a special session of the state legislature to get lawmakers to override the presidential election results and appoint electors to vote for him instead of President-elect Joe Biden. Kemp reportedly declined. Trump flooded his first postelection political rally in Georgia with debunked conspiracy theories and audacious falsehoods as he claimed victory in an election he decisively lost.
(AP, 12/5/20)(The Week, 12/6/20)
2020 Dec 5, A US federal appeals court rejected a bid by a conservative lawyer to block President-elect Joe Biden's victory in Georgia and left in place procedures that will make it easier for voters to cast absentee ballots in January when two Senate seats are up for grabs.
(Reuters, 12/5/20)
2020 Dec 5, In southern California more than 150 people were arrested and a juvenile sex trafficking victim was rescued after Los Angeles County authorities shut down a massive underground party.
(NBC News, 12/9/20)
2020 Dec 5, California to date had 1,315,805 cases of coronavirus and 19,810 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 163,760 cases and 2,028 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 14,521,676 with the death toll at 280,634.
(sfist.com, 12/5/20)
2020 Dec 5, It was reported that South Korea-based Kia is recalling nearly 295,000 vehicles in the US because the engines can stall or catch fire. Engine failure and fire problems with Hyundais and Kias have plagued the companies for more than five years.
(AP, 12/5/20)
2020 Dec 5, The value of global stocks crossed $100 trillion for the first time.
(Econ., 12/19/20, p.98)
2020 Dec 5, In Armenia tens of thousands of opposition supporters marched across Yerevan to push for the resignation of PM Nikol Pashinyan over his handling of the conflict with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh.
(AP, 12/5/20)
2020 Dec 5, The prehistoric monument of Stonehenge in southern England was closed to visitors after dozens of protesters staged a trespass against the British government's road-building plans, including a new tunnel near the World Heritage Site.
(AP, 12/5/20)
2020 Dec 5, Protests over a controversial French draft security bill that would make it illegal to film and identify police officers with malevolent intent took place again. 95 people were arrested and 67 police officers were reportedly injured.
(AP, 12/6/20)
2020 Dec 5, The Indian government and protesting farmers failed to break their deadlock in talks over new agricultural laws. Farmers continued to block key highways around New Delhi.
(SSFC, 12/6/20, p.A5)
2020 Dec 5, In India an unidentified infection began causing over 500 people to fall unconscious following seizures and nausea in Eluru Andhra Pradesh state.
(AP, 12/8/20)
2020 Dec 5, Iran's death toll from the global pandemic rose above 50,000, as the country grapples with the worst outbreak in the Middle East. over 12,150 new cases brought the total of confirmed cases to above 1,028,980.
(AP, 12/5/20)
2020 Dec 5, Kuwaitis elected a new parliament in an election that saw two-thirds of lawmakers and the country's only female legislator lose their seats.
(AP, 12/6/20)
2020 Dec 5, Clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinians erupted, at the funeral of a 13-year-old killed by Israeli gunfire a day earlier in the occupied West Bank.
(AP, 12/5/20)
2020 Dec 5, Italian police arrest 19 suspects, dismantling what authoritie3s said was a criminal organization that moved migrants via Greece and Turkey to Italy and then into northern Europe.
(SSFC, 12/6/20, p.A5)
2020 Dec 5, It was reported that Colonel Malick Diaw, one of the key figures behind the August coup in Mali, has been chosen to lead the interim legislative body, the National Transition Council, despite concern over the military's continued influence in the country.
(BBC, 12/5/20)
2020 Dec 5, Russia launched its nationwide coronavirus immunization effort in Moscow, where thousands of workers in the city's health and education systems have signed up to receive the Sputnik V vaccine at 70 vaccinations facilities throughout the capital.
(The Week, 12/5/20)
2020 Dec 5, The MV Hasan, a cargo ship flagged out of Sierra Leone, was attacked while traveling past Yemen in the Gulf of Aden. It had been on its way to Salalah, Oman, and ended up off the small port city of Nishtun in Yemen's far east.
(AP, 12/5/20)
2020 Dec 5, In Thailand thousands of monarchy loyalists greeted King Maha Vajiralongkorn as he led a birthday commemoration for his revered late father. In recent days at least 12 protest leaders have been charged with royal defamation under lese-majeste laws.
(SSFC, 12/6/20, p.A6)
2020 Dec 5, In southern Yemen Khalid al-Hameidi, a university professor and secular thinker, was killed in a drive-by shooting. Al-Hameidi was a harsh critic of religious extremism, and encouraged his students to organize and take part in mixed-gender cultural and artistic activities in Dhale University.
(AP, 12/5/20)
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For Asia History: https://www.asiaobserver.org/category/news/on-this-day-in-asian-history
1349 Dec 5, 500 Jews of Nuremberg were massacred during Black Death riots.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1443 Dec 5, Giuliano della Rovere, later Pope Julius II (1443-1513), was born in Liguria.
(www.newadvent.org/cathen/08562a.htm)
1456 Dec 5, Earthquake struck Naples and 35,000 died.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1484 Dec 5, Pope Innocent VIII issued a bull deploring the spread of witchcraft and heresy in Germany. He ordered that all cats belonging to witches scheduled to be burned, be also burned. Kraemer and Sprenger, two Dominican friars, had induced Pope Innocent VIII to issue a bull authorizing them to extirpate witchcraft in Germany. [see 1486]
(SFEC, 1/5/97, zone 1 p.2)(HN, 12/5/98)(HNQ, 10/31/99)
1492 Dec 5, Columbus discovered Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic).
(HFA, '96, p.20)(AM, 7/97, p.58)
1496 Dec 5, Jews were expelled from Portugal by order of King Manuel I.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1570 Dec 5, Johan Friis, chancellor of Denmark (b.1532), died. his share of spoliated Church property had made him one of the wealthiest men in Denmark. Under King Frederick II (1559-1588), who understood but little of state affairs, Friis was well-nigh omnipotent. He was largely responsible for the Scandinavian Seven Years' War (1562-1570), which did so much to exacerbate the relations between Denmark and Sweden.
(http://tinyurl.com/7vnad)
1578 Dec 5, Sir Francis Drake sailed into the port of Valparaiso. He had renamed his flagship, the Pelican, to the Golden Hind, and ravaged the coasts of Chile and Peru on his way around the world.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.22)(ON, 7/03, p.7)
1602 Dec 5, Giulio Caccini's "Euridice," premiered in Florence.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1621 Dec 5, A letter from the English office of the Virginia Company reported that European honeybees (Apis mellifera) were shipped to America. They arrived in Virginia in March 1622.
(www.orsba.org/htdocs/download/Honey%20Bees%20Across%20America.html)
1663 Dec 5, Severo Bonini (80), composer, died.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1666 Dec 5, Francesco Antonio Nicola Scarlatti, composer, was born.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1687 Dec 5, Francesco Xaverio Geminiani, composer, was born.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1707 Dec 5, The Society of Antiquaries of London was founded at the Bear Tavern in the Strand by John Talman, the son of an architect, Humfrey Wanley, a student of ancient inscriptions and Anglo-Saxon, and John Bagford, an eccentric shoemaker and dealer in books. They met for the purposes of forming a Society for the study of British antiquities, whose agreed aim was to further the study of British history prior to the reign of James I.
(www.sal.org.uk/newsandevents/makinghistoryantiquaries/)(http://tinyurl.com/32uzwc)
1758 Dec 5, Johann Friedrich Fasch (70), composer, died.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1766 Dec 5, London auctioneers Christie's held their 1st sale. The British auction house Christie’s was sold in 1998 to Francois Pinault, a French businessman and art collector.
(HT, 3/97, p.74)(WSJ, 5/15/98, p.W12)(WSJ, 5/19/98, p.B10)(MC, 12/5/01)
1776 Dec 5, Phi Beta Kappa was organized as the first American college scholastic Greek letter fraternity, at William and Mary College, Williamsburg, Va. In 2005 the honor society had some 600,000 members with about 15,000 new members joining annually.
(AP, 12/5/97)(HN, 12/5/98)(WSJ, 11/4/05, p.W12)
1782 Dec 5, Martin Van Buren, 8th US President (1837-1841) was born in Kinderhook, N.Y. He was the first chief executive to be born after American independence.
(AP, 12/5/08)
1791 Dec 5, Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died in Vienna, Austria, at age 35. His first opera was "Idomeneo." In 1920 Hermann Abert authored “W.A. Mozart." In 1991 Georg Knepler authored "Wolfang Amade Mozart," a Marxist view of Mozart in his times. In 1995 Maynard Solomon published a psychoanalytic biography of Mozart. In 1999 Peter Gay authored a Penguin short life of Mozart and Robert W. Gutman authored the comprehensive biography "Mozart."
(SFEC, 2/2/97, DB. p.54)(AP, 12/5/97)(WSJ, 12/2/99, p.A20)(WSJ, 3/1/08, p.W8)
1792 Dec 5, George Washington was re-elected president; John Adams was re-elected vice president.
(AP, 12/5/97)
1830 Dec 5, Christina Rossetti (d.1894), poet (Winter Rain, Passing Away), was born in London. She wrote devotional verse, curious fairy tales and category defying poems. Her brothers, William Michael and Dante Gabriel, helped found the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, whose professed aim was to revive the purity and vividness they admired in late medieval art. Her story is told by Jan Marsh in “Christina Rosetti: A Writer’s Life." "Better by far you should forget and smile, Than that you should remember and be sad."
(WSJ, 7/25/95, p.A-10)(AP, 12/11/98)(MC, 12/5/01)
1831 Dec 5, Former President John Quincy Adams took his seat as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
(AP, 12/5/01)
1832 Dec 5, Andrew Jackson was re-elected US president and became the 1st president to win an election in which the turnout exceeded 50%. The US anti-Mason Party with William Wirt drew 8% of the vote against Henry Clay and the eventual winner, Andrew Jackson. Clay led the Whig Party which coalesced against the power of Andrew Jackson. The Whigs came from the conservative, nationalist wing of the Jeffersonian Republicans. The election served as a referendum on Jackson’s position against the 2nd Bank of the US.
(Hem, 8/96, p.86)(WSJ, 7/8/99, p.A16)(Panic, p.3)(AH, 6/07, p.45)
1837 Dec 5, Hector Berlioz' "Requiem," premiered.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1839 Dec 5, George Armstrong Custer (d.1876), Union cavalry leader who met his fate against Native Americans at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, was born.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1848 Dec 5, President Polk triggered the Gold Rush of '49 by confirming that gold had been discovered in California. Paula Mitchell Marks later wrote “Precious Dust," an account of the gold rush. In 2002 H.W. Brands authored “The Age of Gold: The California Gold Rush and the New American Dream."
(AP, 12/5/97)(SFEC, 4/12/98, BR p.7)(SSFC, 8/18/02, p.M1)
1859 Dec 5, Dion Boucicault's "Octaroon," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1861 Dec 5, In the U.S. Congress, petitions and bills calling for the abolition of slavery were introduced.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1862 Dec 5, Union general Ulysses Grant’s cavalry received a setback in an engagement on the Mississippi Central Railroad at Coffeeville, Mississippi.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1864 Dec 5, Confederate General Hood sent Nathan Bedford Forrest’s cavalry and a division of infantry towards Murfreesboro, Tenn.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1867 Dec 5, Henry Haight (1825-1878), the 10th governor of California (1867-1871), gave his inaugural address.
(www.governor.ca.gov/govsite/govsgallery/h/biography/governor_10.html)
1868 Dec 5, 1st American bicycle college opened in NY.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1872 Dec 5, The Marie Celeste, a Canadian-built American-owned merchant brigantine, was discovered in the Atlantic Ocean, unmanned and apparently abandoned (the one lifeboat was missing, along with its crew of seven). In 1885 the ship was destroyed when her last owner intentionally wrecked her off the coast of Haiti in an attempt to commit insurance fraud.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Celeste)
1876 Dec 5, Daniel Stillson (Mass) patented the 1st practical pipe wrench.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1876 Dec 5, In NYC a fire in the Brooklyn Theater killed 278 people.
(WSJ, 9/13/01, p.B11)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Claxton)
1890 Dec 5, Fritz Lang (d.1976), film director, was born. His work included “Metropolis," “M," and “The Big Heat."
(WSJ, 4/3/00, p.A46)(HN, 12/5/00)
1890 Dec 5, Berlioz' opera "Les Troyens," premiered in Karlsruhe.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1893 Dec 5, 1st electric car was built in Toronto. It could go 15 miles between charges.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1894 Dec 5, Georges Feydeau's "L'Hotel du Libre Echange," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1901 Dec 5, Walter Elias Disney (d.1966), movie producer and animator, was born in Chicago. Walt Disney created a cartoon empire with the character Mickey Mouse.
(AP, 12/5/97)(SFC, 11/4/98, p.E1)(HN, 12/5/98)(MC, 12/5/01)
1901 Dec 5, Werner Heisenberg (d.1976), German physicist, was born. He discovered the uncertainty principle and won the Nobel Prize in 1932.
(V.D.-H.K.p.337)(MC, 12/5/01)
1901 Dec 5, Grace Moore, American soprano (One Night to Live), was born.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1904 Dec 5, Japanese destroyed Russian fleet at Port Arthur in Korea.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1905 Dec 5, Otto Preminger, director and producer (Laura, Exodus), was born in Austria.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1909 Dec 5, George Taylor made the first manned glider flight in Australia in a glider that he designed himself.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1910 Dec 5, China set this date for the removal of queus (a braid of hair) from the heads of male citizens. This was expected to glut the human hair market.
(SSFC, 12/19/10, DB p.50)
1912 Dec 5, Italy, Austria, and Germany renewed the Triple Alliance for six years.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1916 Dec 5, Hans Richter (73), composer, died.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1916 Dec 5, David Lloyd George replaced Herbert Asquith as the British Prime Minister.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1919 Dec 5, Colombian airline Avianca S.A. was initially registered under the name SCADTA (Colombian-German Air Transport Company).
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avianca)
1921 Dec 5, The British Empire reached an accord with Sinn Fein; Ireland was to become a free state.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1926 Dec 5, Sergei Eisenstein's "Battleship Potemkin," debuted.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1926 Dec 5, Claude [Oscar] Monet (b.1840), French painter (impressionist), died at Giverny, where he’d painted since 1883. Monet was one of the original proponents of Impressionism and--despite failing eyesight--painted fervently until his death. He was born in Paris, but grew up observing nature on the Normandy coast near Le Havre. While studying under Charles Gleyre, Monet met fellow students Fridiric Bazille, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Alfred Sisley. They broke with their teacher and his conventions of painting that included, among other traditions, the painting of outdoor landscapes in a studio. Although he began to experiment with "series" in the late 1870s, his trademark method only appeared in earnest in the 1890s. This involved a series of paintings of the same subject under different lighting and weather conditions. Monet remained committed to Impressionism long after many of his contemporaries had abandoned the style. In 2006 over 1000 letters to Monet were auctioned.
(SSFC, 5/20/01, p.T8)(HNQ, 5/25/01)(SFC, 12/9/06, p.E2)
1928 Dec 5, Paraguay initiated a series of clashes, which led to full-scale war with Bolivia in spite of inter-American arbitration efforts. Both belligerents moved more troops into the Chaco Boreal, a wilderness region north of the Pilcomayo River and west of the Paraguay River that forms part of the Gran Chaco. By 1932 war was definitely under way.
(www.onwar.com/aced/data/charlie/chaco1932.htm)
1931 Dec 5, Reverend James Cleveland, considered the “King of Gospel," was born.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1932 Dec 5, Richard Wayne Penniman [Little Richard], singer, was born.
(HN, 12/5/00)
1932 Dec 5, German physicist Albert Einstein was granted a visa, making it possible for him to travel to the United States. In 2003 Thomas Levenson authored “Einstein in Berlin."
(AP, 12/5/97)(SSFC, 4/20/03, p.M2)
1933 Dec 5, Prohibition was repealed--much to the delight of thirsty revelers--when Utah became the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The nationwide prohibition of the manufacture, sale or transportation of alcoholic beverages was established in January 1919 with passage of the 18th Amendment. Prohibition's supporters gradually became disenchanted with it as the illegal manufacture and sale of liquor fostered a wave of criminal activity. By 1932, the Democratic Party's platform called for the repeal of Prohibition. In February 1933, Congress adopted a resolution proposing the 21st Amendment to repeal the 18th and with Utah's vote in December, Prohibition ended. Three-quarters of the states approved the repeal of the 18th amendment and FDR proclaimed the end of Prohibition.
(SFC, 4/7/96, p.B-11)(AP, 12/5/97)(HNPD, 12/5/98)
1933 Dec 5, SF became a dry city with the death of Prohibition as the city went under state license control with no licenses issued.
(SSFC, 11/30/08, DB p.58)
1933 Dec 5, In SF some 6,259 men received pay from the Civil Works Administration for projects that included Lake Merced road and Balboa reservoir.
(SSFC, 11/30/08, DB p.58)
1934 Dec 5, Joan Didion, essayist and novelist, was born. Her work includes “Slouching Towards Bethlehem" and “Play it as it Lays."
(HN, 12/5/00)
1934 Dec 5, Italian and Ethiopian troops clashed at the Ualual on disputed Somali-Ethiopian border.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1935 Dec 5, Calvin Trillin, journalist and writer, was born.
(HN, 12/5/00)
1936 Dec 5, Albert Walter Jr. (22) was executed by hanging at San Quentin, Ca. He had admitted to strangling a girl in San Francisco nearly 6 months earlier.
(SSFC, 12/4/11, DB p.46)
1936 Dec 5, Armenian SSR, Azerbaijan SSR, Georgian SSR, Kazakh SSR & Kirghiz SSR became constituent republics of Soviet Union.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1936 Dec 5, The New Constitution in the Soviet Union promised universal suffrage, but the Communist Party remained the only legal political party.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1937 Dec 5, The Lindberghs arrived in New York on a holiday visit after a two-year voluntary exile.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1940 Dec 5, Jan Kubelik (60), composer, died.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1941 Dec 5, President Roosevelt sent a message to Japanese Emperor Hirohito expressing hope that gathering war clouds would be dispelled. Hirohito smiled enigmatically, knowing that Japan would attack Pearl Harbor the next day.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1941 Dec 5, US aircraft carrier Lexington and 5 heavy cruisers steamed out of Pearl Harbor.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1941 Dec 5, Sister Elizabeth Kenny's new treatment for infantile paralysis, polio, was approved.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1941 Dec 5, Russian offensive in Moscow drove out the Nazi army.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1942 Dec 5, Arthur Seyss-Inquart ordered students in Nazi Germany to work.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1945 Dec 5, Four TBM Avenger bombers disappear approximately 100 miles off the coast of Florida, in what is considered the Bermuda Triangle.
(HN, 12/5/99)
1945 Dec 5, Petras Kalpokas (b.1880), Lithuanian painter, died in Kaunas.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petras_Kalpokas)
1946 Dec 5, Jose Carreras, opera tenor (I Lombardi, Werther, Three Tenors), was born in Barcelona, Spain.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1946 Dec 5, President Truman created the Committee on Civil Rights by Executive Order #9808.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1950 Dec 5, Pyongyang in Korea fell to the invading Chinese army.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1951 Dec 5, "Dragnet" premiered on TV.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1951 Dec 5, "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, of baseball's "Black Sox" scandal, died.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1952 Dec 5-1952 Dec 8, A 4-day London smog killed 4,703 people. Oxides of sulfur and other irritants from coal smoke were blamed. The air pollution contributed to some 12,000 deaths.
(PCh, 1992, p.937)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Smog)(Econ, 11/26/16, p.74)
1953 Dec 5, Italy and Yugoslavia agreed to pull troops out of the disputed Trieste border.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1955 Dec 5, The US Montgomery Bus Boycott began in 1955. In Montgomery, Alabama, Martin Luther King Jr. organized a bus boycott and began the civil rights movement to end segregation. Black residents chose Mr. King to head The Montgomery Improvement Association, formed to sustain the protest against segregation policies on the municipal buses.
(HFA, '96, p.44)(TMC, 1994, p.1955)(SFEM, 2/2/97, p.8)
1956 Dec 5, Thornton Wilder's "Matchmaker," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1956 Dec 5, Herb Stempel lost to Charles Van Doren on the NBC quiz show “Twenty One" in a fixed match. Albert Freedman (34), who had taken over as head of the Geritol sponsored show, had coached the charming Van Doren to get rid of the expressionless Stempel.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herb_Stempel)(Econ 5/6/17, p.82)
1957 Dec 5, The William Inge play, “The Dark at the Top of the Stairs," opened at New York's Music Box Theatre and ran for a total of 468 performances, closing on January 17, 1959. It was directed by Elia Kazan. The drama was reworked by Inge from his earlier play, Farther Off from Heaven, first staged in 1947 at Margo Jones' Theatre '47 in Dallas, Texas.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_at_the_Top_of_the_Stairs)
1962 Dec 5, Pres. Kennedy discussed stockpiling nuclear weapons to deter Soviet attacks with senior staff including Def. Sec. McNamara and Gen. Maxwell Taylor.
(SFC, 2/7/02, p.A4)
1966 Dec 5, Comedian and political activist Dick Gregory headed for Hanoi, North Vietnam despite federal warnings against it.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1967 Dec 5, Benjamin Spock and Allen Ginsberg were arrested for protesting Vietnam war.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1968 Dec 5, Eduardo Castera, a Latin successfully hijacked a B-727 from Tampa to Cuba.
(http://cuban-exile.com/doc_176-200/doc0180.html)
1972 Dec 5, The Nixon administration, in response to recent hijackings, ordered airports to screen every passenger with a metal detector, inspect the contents of carry-ones and station a local police officer or sheriff’s deputy at every one of the nation’s 531 major commercial facilities. In 2013 Brendan I. Koerner authored “The Skies Belong to Us: Love and Terror in the Golden Age of Hijacking."
(SSFC, 6/30/13, p.F4)
1972 Dec 5, Gough Whitlam (1916-2014), labor leader, became the 21st prime minister of Australia. He served to Nov 11, 1975.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gough_Whitlam)
1973 Dec 5, Paul McCartney released his "Band on the Run" album.
(www.amazon.com/Band-Run-Paul-McCartney-Wings/dp/B000002UCL)
1974 Dec 5, The TV show "Monty Python's Flying Circus" was last shown on BBC. It had premiered on Oct 5, 1969.
(www.museum.tv/archives/etv/M/htmlM/montypython/montypython.htm)
1978 Dec 5, The American space probe Pioneer Venus I, orbiting Venus, began beaming back its first information and picture of the planet to scientists in Mountain View, Calif.
(AP, 12/5/98)
1978 Dec 5, Afghan Pres. Nur Mohammad Tarakai, head of People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), signed a treaty of friendship with the Soviet Union.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)(www.eedi.org.ua/eem/7eng.html)
1979 Dec 5, Feminist Sonia Johnson was formally excommunicated by the Mormon Church because of her outspoken support for the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution.
(AP, 12/5/99)
1979 Dec 5, Teresa De Simone (22) was found strangled in her car outside the pub where she worked in Southampton, 80 miles (130 kilometers) southwest of London. Sean Hodgson initially confessed to the killing, but he later recanted and pleaded not guilty. His lawyers argued he was a pathological liar and any confession he made was false. In 2009 Hodgson was released from prison based on DNA evidence.
(AP, 3/18/09)(http://tinyurl.com/c5jz3y)
1982 Dec 5, Seattle Univ. Baptist Church declared sanctuary for Central American refugees.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1987 Dec 5, FBI agents searched a federal prison where Cuban inmates had peacefully ended an 11-day hostage siege the day before. The agents reported finding bottle bombs and homemade machetes, but no booby-traps or bodies.
(AP, 12/5/97)
1987 Dec 5, In Berkeley, Ca., the body of Deanna Butterfield (21) was found in Tilden Park. In 2006 DNA evidence linked William Huff to the murder, but there was insufficient evidence to charge him. In 2015 Huff was charged for this murder and another in 1992 in San Pablo.
(SFC, 4/8/15, p.D1)
1988 Dec 5, A federal grand jury in North Carolina indicted PTL founder Jim Bakker and former aide Richard Dortch on fraud and conspiracy charges. Bakker was convicted of all counts; Dortch pleaded guilty to four counts and cooperated with prosecutors in exchange for a lighter sentence.
(AP, 12/5/98)
1988 Dec 5, The US Space Shuttle Atlantis continued its classified mission.
(http://www.astronautix.com/craft/atlantis.htm)
1989 Dec 5, East Germany's former leaders, including ousted Communist Party chief Erich Honecker, were placed under house arrest.
(AP, 12/5/97)
1989 Dec 5, A French TGV train reached a world record speed of 482.4 kph.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TGV_world_speed_record)
1990 Dec 5, President Bush, on a visit to Argentina, said he was “not optimistic" that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein would withdraw from Kuwait without a fight.
(AP, 12/5/00)
1991 Dec 5, Samuel K. Skinner was named White House chief of staff by President Bush, succeeding John H. Sununu.
(AP, 12/5/01)
1991 Dec 5, Richard Speck, who murdered eight student nurses in Chicago in 1966 died of a heart attack in prison a day short of his 50th birthday.
(USA Today, 5/14/96, p.3A)(AP, 7/14/97)(AP, 12/5/97)
1992 Dec 5, Ralph Klein, a Progressive Conservative, was elected premier of Alberta. He began to lead Canada in deregulation and privatization. Klein retired at the end of 2006.
(Econ, 7/17/04, p.37)(Econ, 12/2/06, p.44)
1992 Dec 5, Russian President Boris Yeltsin narrowly kept the power to appoint Cabinet ministers, defeating a constitutional amendment that would have put his team of reformers under the control of Russia's Congress.
(AP, 12/5/97)
1993 Dec 5, Astronauts began the repair of Hubble telescope in space.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-61)
1993 Dec 5, In Connecticut Theodore Edwards (77), a restaurant custodian, was fatally shot in Bridgeport. In 2020 Danarius Dukes (44) and Eric Brown (46) were taken into custody and charged with felony murder.
(https://tinyurl.com/y7o6ck7k)(SSFC, 7/5/20, p.A6)
1993 Dec 5, A Palestinian boarded a bus and opened fire with an assault rifle in the first major attack in Israel since the signing of a peace pact with the PLO; the gunman killed a reservist before being gunned down.
(AP, 12/5/98)
1994 Dec 5, President Clinton, on a whirlwind visit to the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Budapest, Hungary, urged European leaders to "prevent future Bosnias." In the so-called Budapest memorandum Britain, Russia and the US affirmed their commitment to respect the independence, sovereignty and existing borders of Ukraine.
(AP, 12/5/99)(AFP, 3/3/14)
1994 Dec 5, Newt Gingrich was elected the first Republican speaker of the US House in four decades.
(AP, 12/5/97)
1994 Dec 5, The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I) went into effect and the United States and Russia began to consider ratification of START II.
(www.fas.org/spp/starwars/crs/91-139.htm)
1994 Dec 5, In India’s Bihar state a mob that pulled senior government official G. Krishnaiah out of his car and beat him unconscious before shooting him to death because the official's car had inadvertently crossed paths with the funeral procession of a noted underworld don and aspiring politician, Chottan Shukla. In 2007 Anand Mohan and two other politicians were sentenced to hang for their role in the attack. Four others, including Mohan's wife, Lovely Anand — also a former member of parliament — were sentenced to life in prison by the court in Patna, the capital of Bihar state.
(AP, 10/4/07)(http://tinyurl.com/3yj99o)
1995 Dec 5, In the first hint of movement at the budget talks, White House officials and Democratic congressional leaders said they were preparing a seven-year budget-balancing plan.
(AP, 12/5/00)
1995 Dec 5, Stanley Keith Runcorn (73), a professor in geophysics, was killed by Paul Bradford Cain (26), a kickboxer, at the Hotel San Diego. Cain was convicted in 1997 of first-degree murder.
(SFC, 10/3/97, p.A20)
1995 Dec 5, Former South Korean president Roh Tae-woo, four aides and a dozen top businessmen were indicted in a bribes-for-favors scandal.
(AP, 12/5/00)
1996 Dec 5, President Clinton announced the foreign policy team for his second term, including Madeleine Albright as the first female secretary of state, Sen. William Cohen of Maine, a Republican, as defense secretary and Anthony Lake as CIA director.
(WSJ, 12/6/96, p.A1)(AP, 12/5/97)
1996 Dec 5, Alan Greenspan warned that investors could be succumbing to “irrational exuberance." Nasdaq closed at 1300.12.
(WSJ, 7/24/02, p.A1)
1996 Dec 5, An African Summit opened in Burkina Faso. New candidates for the position of UN Secretary-general were to be considered.
(WSJ, 12/6/96, p.A1)
1996 Dec 5, In Colombia Isidro Gil, a union leader at a Carepa Coca-Cola bottling plant, was killed at work. It was later alleged that the plant manager hired right-wing paramilitary to help wipe out union activity. In 2002 the labor union filed suit against Coca-Cola in Miami.
(SFC, 6/6/02, p.A11)
1996 Dec 5, In Iran the Parliament passed legislation that banned the use of foreign words and names in the country. Only Farsi language names would be allowed.
(WSJ, 12/6/96, p.A12)
1996 Dec 5, In Serbia Milosevic allowed the radio stations to resume broadcasting. The disputed elections were to be reviewed by the Supreme Court.
(SFC, 12/6/96, p.B2)
1997 Dec 5, Pres. Clinton said US troops in Haiti will continue their presence. Some 300-500 troops were posted on a rotating basis for civil affairs work with an additional 150 US military police for security.
(SFC, 12/6/97, p.A10)
1997 Dec 5, The space shuttle Columbia returned from a 16-day mission that had been marred by the bungled release of a satellite.
(AP, 12/5/98)
1997 Dec 5, The World Trade Organization rejected American claims that the Fuji film company had conspired with the Japanese government to keep Eastman Kodak products out of Japan.
(SFC, 12/5/97, p.C3)(AP, 12/5/98)
1997 Dec 5, In India explosions on 3 separate passenger trains left at least 10 dead and 64 injured in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
(SFC, 12/6/97, p.A9)
1997 Dec 5, In Mexico City Mayor Cuautemoc Cardenas (63) was sworn into office. He named Jesus Carrola as head of the judicial police.
(SFC, 12/6/97, p.A8)(SFC, 12/11/97, p.C3)
1997 Dec 5, Pres. Yeltsin visited the lower house of parliament and prodded the passage of the new budget with austere spending plans.
(SFC, 12/6/97, p.A9)
1997 Dec 5, In Spain a politician’s bodyguard was shot to death hours before authorities arrested 19 of 23 leaders of the pro-Basque independence party, Herri Batasuna, in San Sebastian. Protestors also commandeered a bus and burned it.
(SFC, 12/6/97, p.A8)
1997 Dec 5, In northern Sri Lanka Heavy fighting left some 250 dead. Guerrillas turned over the bodies of 111 government soldiers and some 150 Tamil rebel were believed killed in Vavuniya.
(SFC, 12/6/97, p.A9)
1997 Dec 5, Turkish troops began an offensive against Turkish Kurds in northern Iraq. The 20,000 man force was to be assisted by 8,000 men of the Kurdistan Democratic party, an Iraqi group.
(SFC, 12/6/97, p.A9)
1998 Dec 5, James P. Hoffa claimed the Teamsters presidency after challenger Tom Leedham conceded defeat in the union's presidential election.
(SFEC, 12/6/98, p.A9)(AP, 12/5/99)
1998 Dec 5, Former Senator Albert Gore Senior (90), father of the vice president, died at his home in Carthage, Tenn.
(AP, 12/5/99)
1998 Dec 5, In Nigeria local government elections were held.
(SFEC, 12/6/98, p.A21)
1998 Dec 5, In Paraguay the ruling Colorado Pary expelled former army chief Lino Oviedo and accused Pres. Raul Cubas of defying the constitution for failing obey a Supreme Court ruling to send Oviedo back to prison.
(SFEC, 12/6/98, p.A28)
1998 Dec 5, In South Korea the first Japanese film since 1945 was screened. “Hana Bi" (Fireworks) was the first film shown since a ban on Japanese work was lifted in Oct.
(SFEC, 12/6/98, p.A15)
1998 Dec 5, Pakistan's sinking credit rating and unsuccessful talks with U.S. officials in Washington caused a major setback to the stock market.
(UPI, 12/6/98)
1999 Dec 5, AFL-CIO chief John Sweeney welcomed the collapse of World Trade Organization talks in Seattle and the failure to agree on a new round of negotiations, telling CBS’ “Face the Nation," “No deal is better than a bad deal."
(AP, 12/5/00)
1999 Dec 5, Cuban President Fidel Castro demanded that the United States return five-year-old Elian Gonzalez, who was rescued at sea, to his father in Cuba within 72 hours.
(AP, 12/5/00)
1999 Dec 5, In France Michele Alliot-Marie (53) was elected as the 1st female leader of the conservative Rally for the Republic.
(SFC, 12/6/99, p.A14)
1999 Dec 5, In Vietnam 4 days of rain caused flooding that left over 109 people dead.
(SFC, 12/6/99, p.A14)(SFC, 12/7/99, p.B3)
2000 Dec 5, The US Nasdaq market rose 274 points, 10.5%, to 2889 on hints from Greenspan that interest rates may be cut. The Dow rose 338 to 10,898.
(SFC, 12/6/00, p.A1)
2000 Dec 5, Florida's highest court kept the presidential race on the legal fast track, agreeing to a speedy hearing of Al Gore's appeal of a ruling that in effect awarded George W. Bush the state's 25 electoral votes.
(SFC, 12/6/00, p.A1)(AP, 12/5/01)
2000 Dec 5, The Israeli and Palestinian violence was reported to have cost the Palestinians over $500 million in lost wages and sales since late September.
(SFC, 12/6/00, p.A16)
2000 Dec 5, In the Ivory Coast police battled opposition supporters for a 2nd day and at least 10 people were killed.
(SFC, 12/6/00, p.A18)
2000 Dec 5, In Japan Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori appointed a new Cabinet that included 2 former prime ministers, Miyazawa and Hashimoto.
(SFC, 12/5/00, p.A16)
2000 Dec 5, In Mexico Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, the new chief of the national security council, vowed to end illegal wiretapping.
(SFC, 12/6/00, p.C3)
2000 Dec 5, In Mexico City Manuel Andres Lopez Obrador took office as mayor and vowed to delegate power and resources down to the 1,352 neighborhood governments. Obrador appointed women to 9 of his 15 cabinet seats.
(SFC, 12/6/00, p.C3)
2000 Dec 5, In South Africa 7 people were killed at 2 polling stations during the 2nd all-race municipal elections. The elections slashed the number of municipalities from 843 to 284 with 6 mega cities, each presided by a single mayor. The ruling African National Congress (ANC) won at least 59% of the contests.
(SFC, 12/6/00, p.A18)(WSJ, 12/7/00, p.A1)
2001 Dec 5, The FBI arrested escaped fugitive Clayton Lee Waagner in St. Louis. Waagner was suspected of mailing as many as 550 anthrax hoax letters to abortion clinics. He was also wanted for bank robbery and other offenses. In 2002 Waagner was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
(SFC, 12/6/01, p.A13)(WSJ, 12/6/01, p.A1)(SFC, 1/26/02, p.A10)
2001 Dec 5, The National Park Service web site was shut down by court order to keep hackers from accessing Indian tribal funds.
(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A1)
2001 Dec 5, Nasa launched space shuttle Endeavour to deliver a new 3-man crew to the Alpha space station. Russian cosmonaut Yuri Onufrienko flew to replace Doug Culbertson as skipper.
(WSJ, 12/6/01, p.A1)(SFC, 12/8/01, p.A2)
2001 Dec 5, The DJIA gained 129 to finish above 10,000 for the 1st time in 3 months.
(SFC, 12/30/01, p.D8)
2001 Dec 5, Marjorie Dabney (70) of Bakersfield, Ca., disappeared from the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport. In 2008 DNA evidence identified her remains, which were found in a field 15 miles from the airport.
(SFC, 12/8/08, p.A4)
2001 Dec 5, A 2000-pound US bomb killed 3 American Green Berets near Kandahar along with 18 Afghan fighters. 20 Americans were injured along with 18 Afghan fighters including newly appointed Afghan leader Hamid Karzai.
(SFC, 12/6/01, p.A1,15)(WSJ, 12/6/01, p.A1)
2001 Dec 5, Sir Peter Blake (53) of New Zealand, 2-time America’s Cup winner, was killed on the research vessel Seamaster by gunmen at Macapa, Brazil, near the mouth of the Amazon. 7 men were arrested 2 days later and an 8th was still sought. The final 2 suspects were arrested Dec 9.
(SFC, 12/7/01, p.A1)(SFC, 12/8/01, p.A2)(SFC, 12/10/01, p.A3)
2001 Dec 5, Afghan delegates in Koenigswinter, Germany, signed an agreement for an interim post-Taliban government to begin Dec 22.
(SFC, 12/6/01, p.A1)(AP, 12/5/02)
2001 Dec 5, In Jerusalem another suicide bomber sd’d outside a hotel and 2 people were injured. Sharon gave Arafat a 12-hour reprieve to arrest those responsible for the attacks.
(SFC, 12/6/01, p.A3)
2001 Dec 5, Russia agreed to cut its oil exports by 150,000 barrels a day to satisfy OPEC demands.
(WSJ, 12/6/01, p.A3)
2002 Dec 5, Trent Lott, Senate Republican leader from Mississippi, made remarks that supported Sen. Strom Thurmond's 1948 segregationist platform. The resulting firestorm prompted Lott to resign his leadership position. Strom Thurmond, the oldest and longest-serving senator in history, celebrated his 100th birthday on Capitol Hill.
(SFC, 12/13/02, p.A4)(AP, 12/5/03)
2002 Dec 5, In Kansas City, Mo. a pharmacist who had diluted chemotherapy drugs given to thousands of cancer patients was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
(AP, 12/5/03)
2002 Dec 5, A severe ice and snow storm snarled the eastern US down into the Carolinas, where over a million customers lost power. 29 deaths were blamed on the storm and its aftermath.
(SFC, 12/6/02, p.A3)(SSFC, 12/8/02, p.A14)
2002 Dec 5, The genetic code of the Black 6 mouse, the most common breed of laboratory mouse, was published in Nature.
(SFC, 12/5/02, p.A1)
2002 Dec 5, Roone Arledge (71), ABC executive, died in New York.
(AP, 12/5/03)
2002 Dec 5, In Brazil 6 South American presidents convened a summit of the continent's largest trading bloc, aiming to work out a timetable for a free trade agreement covering most of the continent.
(AP, 12/6/02)
2002 Dec 5, Ne Win (91), former general and dictator, died in Yangon. His 26 years in power bankrupted Myanmar (Burma) economically and spiritually.
(SFC, 12/6/02, p.A30)(WSJ, 12/6/02, p.A1)
2002 Dec 5, In Canada the high court ruled that higher life forms such as mice can't be patented.
(WSJ, 12/6/02, p.A1)
2002 Dec 5, Kenya’s Pres. Moi and Ethiopian PM Meles Zenawi met at the White House with Pres. Bush to discuss terrorism as well as drought, AIDS and other problems facing Africa.
(AP, 12/6/02)
2002 Dec 5, An explosion at a McDonald's Restaurant in Makassar on Sulawesi island killed three people and seriously wounded 11. A 2nd blast took place an hour later in a car showroom owned by Indonesia's Social Welfare Minister Yusuf Kalla.
(Reuters, 12/6/02)
2002 Dec 5, In Mexico City an angry mob beat to death two of three youths who allegedly tried to rob a taxi driver.
(AP, 12/6/02)
2002 Dec 5, In Pakistan a bomb exploded at the Macedonian Consulate and 3 people were killed. Revenge for a Mar 2 killing of 7 militants in Skopje was suspected.
(SFC, 12/6/02, p.A16)
2003 Dec 5, A federal judge in Utah threw out the case against two civic leaders accused of bribery in their efforts to bring the 2002 Winter Games to Salt Lake City.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2003 Dec 5, The two makers of flu shots in the United States, Chiron and Aventis Pasteur, announced they had run out of vaccine and would not be able to meet a surge in demand.
(AP, 12/5/04)
2003 Dec 5, Yahoo Inc. said it is working on technology to combat e-mail spam by changing the way the Internet works to require authentication of a message's sender.
(AP, 12/6/03)
2003 Dec 5, In eastern Afghanistan 6 children were crushed to death by a collapsing wall during an assault by U.S. forces on a weapons compound.
(AP, 12/10/03)
2003 Dec 5, Shanghai's government reported that its population has surged to more than 20 million people, soaring by 3 million over the past year amid a flood of job seekers from other parts of China.
(AP, 12/5/03)
2003 Dec 5, Hard-line vigilantes attacked a close aide to Iran's president as he was about to give a speech, repeatedly punching and kicking him, his wife.
(AP, 12/5/03)
2003 Dec 5, Israeli military allowed a market in the divided West Bank city of Hebron to open for the first time in more than a year.
(AP, 12/5/03)
2003 Dec 5, The Israeli military shot and killed two Palestinians, armed with grenades and an explosive device, crawling toward a security barrier separating the Gaza Strip from Israel.
(AP, 12/6/03)
2003 Dec 5, A shrapnel-filled bomb believed strapped to a suicide attacker ripped apart a commuter train near Chechnya, killing 44 people and wounding nearly 200. Pres. Putin called it an attempt to disrupt weekend parliamentary elections.
(AP, 12/5/04)
2003 Dec 5, A bus plunged into a valley in the northern Mexico state of Zacatecas, killing 15 people and injuring 15 others.
(AP, 12/6/03)
2003 Dec 5, In Nigeria in the opening session of the summit of Britain and its former colonies British PM Tony Blair urged African leaders not to lift Zimbabwe's suspension from the Commonwealth.
(AP, 12/5/03)
2003 Dec 5, Syria continued to reject US pressure to hand over an estimated $250 million that Saddam Hussein's regime had deposited there.
(WSJ, 12/5/03, p.A1)
2003 Dec 5, In Tunisia an informal, two-day summit brought leaders from five southern European countries together with five of their counterparts from across the Mediterranean.
(AP, 12/5/03)
2004 Dec 5, US Senator McCain demanded that baseball players and owners take action to tighten drug testing and threatened legislation to that end.
(WSJ, 12/6/04, p.A1)
2004 Dec 5, In Bolivia Indian and peasant organizations promising better access to health care and education won every major city in local elections, trouncing long-dominant parties.
(AP, 12/6/04)
2004 Dec 5, Egypt freed an Israeli Arab businessman convicted of spying in exchange for Israel's release of six Egyptian students.
(AP, 12/5/04)
2004 Dec 5, In Abkhazia (Georgia) the two candidates vying for the region's presidency agreed to conduct new elections and run on a joint ticket.
(AP, 12/6/04)
2004 Dec 5, Hungarians voted in a referendum on extending citizenship to millions of ethnic Hungarians living in the region.
(AP, 12/5/04)
2004 Dec 5, Gunmen opened fire at the bus as it dropped off Iraqis employed by coalition forces at a weapons dump in Tikrit. 17 people died and 13 were wounded. A suicide car bomber drove into an Iraqi National Guard checkpoint in Beiji. 3 guardsmen, including a company commander, were killed and 18 wounded. Guerrillas ambushed a joint Iraqi-coalition patrol in Latifiyah and attacked Iraqi National Guardsmen patrolling near Samarra. 2 Iraqis were killed and 10 wounded.
(AP, 12/6/04)
2004 Dec 5, In Kashmir a remote-controlled roadside bomb blew up an army patrol car in a pre-dawn attack, killing an Indian army major and 10 other soldiers.
(AP, 12/5/04)
2004 Dec 5, In Kazakhstan 23 people died and three others were injured in an explosion at a coal mine in the Karaganda region.
(AP, 12/5/04)
2004 Dec 5, Authorities outside Mexico City found the body of Enrique Salinas (51), the former Pres. Salinas’ brother, with a bag tied around his head. 2 federal police officers were arrested in 2005 for trying to extort money Salinas prior to his murder.
(AP, 7/15/05)
2004 Dec 5, In Nigeria hundreds of protesters besieged two oil platforms run by Royal Dutch/Shell Group Cos. and ChevronTexaco Corp. in the southern oil region, shutting down production of 90,000 barrels of oil a day.
(AP, 12/6/04)
2004 Dec 5, It was reported that the Norwegian firm Hydro and Qatar's state energy company signed a deal to build one of world's largest aluminium plants in the gas-rich Gulf state at a cost of three billion dollars.
(AFP, 12/5/04)
2004 Dec 5, In Ramallah Jad al-Hindi (19) was abducted by the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a violent militant group linked to the dominant Fatah movement. Police found al-Hindi's body the next day, saying he had been shot in the head 12 times.
(AP, 12/6/04)
2004 Dec 5, President Vladimir Putin made the first official visit by a Russian leader to Turkey, seeking to boost trade and counterterrorism cooperation between the two countries.
(AP, 12/5/04)
2004 Dec 5, Carlos Moya beat Andy Roddick 6-2, 7-6 (1), 7-6 (5) to clinch Spain's second Davis Cup title.
(AP, 12/05/05)
2004 Dec 5, Thailand airdropped nearly 100 million Japanese-style origami cranes over the predominantly Muslim southern region in a psychological effort toward peace. A series of bomb attacks followed the next day.
(AP, 12/6/04)
2005 Dec 5, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice denied the United States engaged in torture or lesser forms of cruel treatment against terror suspects.
(AP, 12/5/06)
2005 ABC News named Elizabeth Vargas and Bob Woodruff co-anchors of "World News Tonight," replacing the late Peter Jennings.
(AP, 12/5/06)
2005 Dec 5, Intel Chairman Craig Barrett said the chip-maker will invest more than $1 billion in the next five years to expand its operations in India and in local technology companies.
(AP, 12/05/05)
2005 Dec 5, A new version of King Kong, directed by Peter Jackson, premiered in NYC.
(Econ, 12/10/05, p.68)
2005 Dec 5, Edward L. Masry, the personal-injury lawyer portrayed by Albert Finney in the Oscar-winning movie "Erin Brockovich," died in Thousand Oaks, Calif., at age 73.
(AP, 12/5/06)
2005 Dec 5, Austria officially finished paying out nearly $350 million in restitution to former slave and forced laborers compelled to work during WW II under Nazi control.
(SFC, 12/6/05, p.A8)
2005 Dec 5, Gay couples in Britain began registering for civil partnerships as a law took effect giving them many of the same legal rights as married heterosexuals.
(AP, 12/05/05)
2005 Dec 5, China ordered 150 Airbus single-aisle A320 airliners, more than twice as many plane orders as the company's U.S.-based rival Boeing Co. snagged from China last month.
(AP, 12/05/05)
2005 Dec 5, In Congo a magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck the Lake Tanganyika region of East Africa toppling dozens of homes in Kalemie and burying children in the rubble. Several people were reported killed.
(AP, 12/05/05)(WSJ, 12/6/05, p.A1)
2005 Dec 5, France's highest administrative body ruled that Sikhs can wear their turbans in drivers' license photos, overturning an earlier denial of a license to a Sikh who refused to take off his turban for the photo.
(AP, 12/06/05)
2005 Dec 5, UN peacekeepers at a checkpoint in Port-au-Prince opened fire on a car full of Haitian police officers wounding two.
(AP, 12/09/05)
2005 Dec 5, In India a freight train derailed, killing six people and injuring 50 others in a remote district of eastern Orissa state.
(AP, 12/05/05)
2005 Dec 5, In Iraq unidentified gunmen abducted a French engineer as he was on his way to work in Baghdad. The trial of Saddam Hussein resumed in Baghdad. French engineer Bernard Planche was kidnapped in Baghdad. He was later freed.
(AP, 12/05/05)(AP, 12/5/06)
2005 Dec 5, Opposition leaders in Kazakhstan said that the overwhelming re-election of President Nursultan Nazarbayev should be declared invalid, and foreign observers said the balloting did not meet international standards.
(AP, 12/05/05)
2005 Dec 5, Myanmar's military junta reopened a key national constitutional convention.
(AP, 12/05/05)
2005 Dec 5, Frits Philips (100), Dutch businessman, grandson of the founder of Philips, died. He turned a family business into Philips Electronics in 40 years of leadership.
(WSJ, 12/7/05, p.A1)(http://tinyurl.com/dfnu4)
2005 Dec 5, In southeastern Nigeria Separatist protesters demanding authorities release their leader shut down businesses and banks, and an activist said security forces opened fire on the crowd, killing three people.
(AP, 12/05/05)
2005 Dec 5, A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up among shoppers waiting to enter a mall in the Israeli town of Netanya, killing at least 5 people and wounding more than 30 others.
(AP, 12/05/05)
2005 Dec 5, Officials said courts in Uzbekistan have convicted another 58 alleged participants of the May uprising in Andijan and sentenced them to up to 20 years in prison.
(AP, 12/05/05)
2005 Dec 5, In Venezuela President Hugo Chavez's governing party won full control of the 167-National Assembly, claiming a sweeping victory in congressional elections boycotted by major opposition parties.
(AP, 12/05/05)
2005 Dec 5, In Venezuela a Dec 3 explosion that damaged an oil pipeline supplying the country's largest refinery was reported to have been caused by government foes attempting to disrupt congressional elections. Interior Minister Jesse Chacon said investigators found remnants of C-4 explosives at three spots on the pipeline.
(AP, 12/05/05)
2006 Dec 5, Robert Gates won speedy and unanimous approval from the Senate Armed Services Committee to be secretary of defense.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2006 Dec 5, New York became the first city in the nation to ban artery-clogging trans fats at restaurants. The ban became effective July 1, 2007.
(AP, 12/6/06)(SFC, 7/2/07, p.A4)
2006 Dec 5, An annual US report put Minnesota at the top of its health rankings for the fourth straight year, while concluding that the nation's health improved slightly.
(AP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 5, In Alabama Geontae Glass, a 5-year-old boy who was asleep in the back of a car when it was stolen from a parking lot a day earlier, was found dead in a neighboring county.
(AP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 5, A large sunspot rounded the sun's eastern limb and with little warning it exploded. On the "Richter scale" of solar flares, which ranks X1 as a big event, the blast registered X9, making it one of the strongest flares of the past 30 years.
(http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2008/15dec_solarflaresurprise/)
2006 Dec 5, A suicide bomber plowed his car into a convoy of NATO troops in Afghanistan's southern city of Kandahar, wounding nine civilians and two soldiers.
(AP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 5, In Brazil a court said it had released the passports of two US pilots of a private jet involved in a collision with a Boeing 737 over the Amazon that killed 154 people.
(AP, 12/6/06)
2006 Dec 5, British PM Tony Blair and Rwandan President Paul Kagame discussed economic reform and how to reconcile the people of the landlocked African state still scarred by the 1994 genocide. They also talked about the conflict in the western Darfur region of Sudan, where Rwanda has troops on the ground as part of the African Union force.
(AFP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 5, The EU presidency backed a proposal to partially suspend EU membership talks with Turkey because of Ankara's refusal to open up to trade with Cyprus.
(AP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 5, The military seized control of Fiji after weeks of threats, locking down the capital with armed troops and isolating at home the elected leader whose last-minute pleas for help from foreign forces were rejected. Commodore Frank Bainimarama named Dr. Jona Senilagakali, a military medic with no political experience, as caretaker prime minister and said a full interim government would be appointed next week to see the country through to elections that would restore democracy sometime in the future. PM Laisenia Qarase, who had caved in to all demands, was deposed anyway. Pres. Ratu Josefa Iloilo, refused to rubber-stamp Bainimarama’s “doctrine of necessity."
(AP, 12/5/06)(Econ, 12/9/06, p.49)
2006 Dec 5, Knut became the first polar bear born to be born in Germany’s Berlin Zoo in 30 years. He was rejected by his mother and spent his first 44 days in an incubator. Zookeeper Thomas Doerflein (d.2008 at 44) raised the cub by hand.
(www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,461624,00.html)(SFC, 9/26/08, p.B9)
2006 Dec 5, In Germany world chess champion Vladimir Kramnik lost the sixth and decisive game against computer program Deep Fritz, ceding a hard-fought Man vs. Machine match 4-2.
(AP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 5, In Haiti at least 8 people were killed over the last few days in the Martissant slum during a gang feud set off by the Dec 3 murder of a police officer. The officer's killing reignited an ongoing battle between the rival Grand Ravine and Ti Manchet gangs.
(AP, 12/7/06)
2006 Dec 5, An Indian court sentenced Shibu Soren, former cabinet coal minister, to life behind bars for conspiracy in the abduction and murder of an aide. The court had found him guilty of the 1994 murder and abduction of his former private secretary, Shashi Nath Jha, who was allegedly blackmailing him over a corruption scandal.
(AFP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 5, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed to stick by the nuclear program and issued a new threat to downgrade relations with the EU if European negotiators opted for tough sanctions. A media rights group warned that Internet censorship in Iran is on the rise after Iran blocked access to the popular video-sharing Web site YouTube.com.
(AP, 12/6/06)
2006 Dec 5, Iraq’s PM Nouri al-Maliki said his government will send envoys to neighboring countries to pave the way for a regional conference on ending the rampant violence. Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, the top American military spokesman in Iraq, said the US military expects all of Iraq to be under the control of Iraqi forces by mid-2007. Suspected insurgents set off a car bomb to stop a minibus carrying Shiite government employees in Baghdad, then shot and killed 15 of them. In another attack in the capital, two car bombs exploded in a commercial district, killing 15 other Iraqis.
(AP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 5, An Italian prosecutor asked for the indictment of 26 Americans and Italian secret service officials on a charge of kidnapping an Egyptian cleric in Milan in 2003.
(AP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 5, Ivory Coast police fired into a crowd protesting President Laurent Gbagbo's regime and killed one person, as political opponents mounted rallies in several towns in the southern part of the divided West African country.
(AP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 5, Jamaica reported 15 cases of malaria in the Kingston area, the first in 15 years.
(WSJ, 12/6/06, p.A1)
2006 Dec 5, Kuwait's highest court overturned the conviction of Nasser Najr al-Mutairi, a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner who was returned to the emirate in 2005.
(AFP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 5, Mexico’s Pres. Calderon, under pressure to promote the social programs his leftist rival championed, presented an austere budget that increases spending for social programs to help the country's poorest. Mexican police arrested Flavio Sosa, the symbolic leader of a six-month-long protest movement that took over southern Oaxaca city, hours after he gave a news conference saying he had come to the capital to start talks with the government.
(AP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 5, Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said he is willing to give up its claim to all of Kashmir if India agrees that the disputed Himalayan region should become self-governing and largely autonomous. Troops shot dead three Islamic militants in Indian Kashmir, while 19 civilians were injured and a guerrilla was killed in a grenade blast.
(AP, 12/5/06)(AFP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 5, The first foreign aid flights of food and medicines arrived in the eastern Philippines. Officials said devastating mudslides had left at least 1,266 people dead or missing.
(AFP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 5, A Russian court sentenced Ruslan Melnik (22), a leader of an extremist group known as the Mad Crowd, to 3 1/2 years in prison for hate crime attacks on foreigners.
(AP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 5, Somalia's government ruled out peace talks with the country's Islamic movement, citing truce violations, heightening fears of an all-out war.
(AFP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 5, In South Africa the findings of a new report said nearly 300 million dollars worth of gold is stolen every year by underground pirates from mines. The report found that 41% of gold thieves were mine employees and 56% were unemployed.
(AFP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 5, A shell apparently fired by Congolese troops fighting forces loyal to a dissident general near the Ugandan border landed among a group of some 12,000 refugees in Uganda, killing at least seven.
(AFP, 12/6/06)
2006 Dec 5, Pro-Moroccan leaders in the Western Sahara presented a self-rule plan for a government, parliament and legal system in the territory, while acknowledging Rabat's sovereignty.
(AFP, 12/6/06)
2006 Dec 5, Typhoon Durian slammed into Vietnam's southern coast as a tropical storm. A Dec 7 government report said nearly 100 people were killed or are missing after the typhoon hit the southern coast.
(AP, 12/6/06)(Reuters, 12/7/06)
2006 Dec 5, In Yemen a gunman opened fire outside the US Embassy, but Yemeni guards quickly shot and arrested him.
(AP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 5, Zimbabwe's top union body vowed to stage new protests against the government, saying it had failed to address the plight of workers reeling under four-digit inflation, high taxes and a shrinking labor market.
(AFP, 12/5/06)
2007 Dec 5, President George W. Bush, trying to keep pressure on Iran, called on Tehran to "come clean" about the scope of its nuclear activities or else face diplomatic isolation.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2007 Dec 5, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver inducted the 2007 California Hall of Fame inductees: Ansel Adams, Milton Berle, Steve Jobs, Willie Mays, Robert Mondavi, Rita Moreno, Jackie Robinson, Jonas Salk, M.D., John Steinbeck, Elizabeth Taylor, Earl Warren, John Wayne, and Tiger Woods.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Hall_of_Fame)
2007 Dec 5, In Omaha, Nebraska, Robert A. Hawkins (19) sprayed the third floor of the Von Maur department store in Westroads Mall with gunfire. When the shooting was over, Hawkins killed himself. His victims included six store employees and two customers. An autopsy report later indicated that only some Valium in his system.
(AP, 12/6/07)(SFC, 1/2/08, p.A3)
2007 Dec 5, It was reported that the world’s largest helium reserve near Amarillo, Texas, was expected to run out by 2015. The Bush Dome, begun as a reserve by the government in 1925, supplied 35% of the world’s current usage.
(WSJ, 12/5/07, p.B1)
2007 Dec 5, Andrew Imbrie (b.1921), composer and teacher, died in Berkeley, Ca. His work included the opera “Angle of Repose", which was commissioned and premiered (1976) by the SF Opera.
(SFC, 12/8/07, p.B3)
2007 Dec 5, Afghan forces clashed with Taliban who had blocked a main highway in the south, killing 10 militants. A suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into a minibus carrying Afghan soldiers south of Kabul, killing at least 13 people and wounding 20 others.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, An international aid organization said Angolan soldiers routinely and repeatedly rape Congolese women who have crossed the border illegally in search of work in the diamond fields.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, Australia’s PM Kevin Rudd spoke at the state funeral for Bernie Banton (61), who died from an asbestos-related disease he contracted while working for building products company James Hardie. Banton's dogged campaign ultimately led to the establishment of a 4 billion dollar (3.5 billion US) compensation fund for victims of Hardie's asbestos products.
(AFP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, Bolivian President Evo Morales announced he would ask for a referendum on whether he should remain president, and challenged opposition governors to do the same.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, In Bosnia 4 men wearing police uniforms and armed with automatic weapons stormed Sarajevo international airport's cargo zone and stole $1.9 million.
(AP, 12/6/07)
2007 Dec 5, British police arrested John Darwin (57) on fraud charges, five years after he vanished in an apparent canoeing accident in the North Sea, only to reappear last weekend, claiming he had amnesia.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, Congo's army said it retook a strategic town on from rebels loyal to renegade Tutsi General Laurent Nkunda in the violence-torn eastern province of North Kivu.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, French police arrested two armed people in connection with a weekend shooting that left two Spanish officers dead in what authorities described as the first Basque-related killings in France in more than three decades.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, In Germany 3 men were convicted of aiding the al-Qaida in Germany, including one who prosecutors say was part of the terrorist network's command structure and had contact with top leaders.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, In Darry, Germany, the bodies of 5 young boys, ages 3 to 9, were found in their home after their 31-year-old mother told a doctor where they were. Authorities in eastern Germany announced they had found the bodies of three infant girls and had taken their mother into custody on manslaughter charges.
(AP, 12/6/07)
2007 Dec 5, Karlheinz Stockhausen (b.1928), German avant-garde composer, died. His innovative electronic works made him one of the most important composers of the postwar era. His work included “Kontakte" (1959-60) and “Stimmung" (1968), a sextet for unaccompanied voices on a 6-note chord of B-flat.
(AP, 12/8/07)(Econ, 12/15/07, p.95)
2007 Dec 5, A survey said Indian business confidence has slumped to a five-year low on the back of flagging exports, aggressive monetary tightening and a rising rupee that has slowed the economy.
(AFP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, A blast hit the northern city of Mosul. Police said explosives hidden in a parked car killed a civilian and wounded seven others. A car bomb exploded in a largely Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad and killed at least 14 people. US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said during a visit to the capital that security and stability were within reach, although more work is needed. In Baqouba a suicide car bomber targeted a bus station and killed five civilians with at least 20 others wounded. In Kirkuk a parked car bomb killed three Kurdish soldiers in a convoy guarding a police chief.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, Latvia's center-right government resigned after coming under intense criticism for firing a popular anti-corruption investigator and failing to restrain inflation.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, Liberia cleared its debt arrears with the World Bank, paving the way for new development lending and debt cancellation that will help the West African country rebuild after years of civil war.
(Reuters, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, Mexican police conducted the biggest anti-logging raid in the nation's history at clandestine sawmills that cut timber on a threatened nature reserve where Monarch butterflies nest in the winter. Authorities in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez said that they plan to exhume the remains of more than 4,000 unidentified people buried in common graves and take DNA samples in an attempt to identify them.
(AP, 12/5/07)(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 5, Six judges on Nicaragua's Supreme Court threw out a law meant to block neighborhood councils that will report directly to President Daniel Ortega. But other judges call the ruling itself illegal.
(AP, 12/6/07)
2007 Dec 5, Two Palestinian militants were killed by Israeli tank fire in northern Gaza. Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi said Israel's army has completed plans for a large offensive in the Gaza Strip and is only waiting for government approval for the action.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, Sri Lanka’s defense ministry said at least 36 people including 7 soldiers were killed in fresh fighting between security forces and Tamil rebels in the embattled north. A land mine explosion blamed on Tamil separatists tore through a passenger bus crowded with civilians in northern Sri Lanka, killing at least 16 people and wounding 22 others.
(AFP, 12/5/07)(AP, 12/6/07)
2007 Dec 5, Turkish soldiers killed eight Kurdish rebels, increasing the rebel death toll to 14 in a two-day clash near the border with Iraq.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2008 Dec 5, The US and China pledged to work together to tackle global financial turmoil as they wrapped up economic talks but left open whether the high-level dialogue will continue under President-elect Barack Obama.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, The US labor Dept. said employers slashed 533,000 jobs in November, the most in 34 years, catapulting the unemployment rate to 6.7 percent, dramatic proof the country is careening deeper into recession.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, O.J. Simpson was sentenced in Las Vegas from 9 to 33 years in prison for kidnapping and assaulting two sports memorabilia dealers with a deadly weapon.
(AP, 12/6/08)
2008 Dec 5, Cliff Lambert (74), a Palm Springs retiree, was stabbed to death and buried in the desert. To date his body has not been found. The murder was orchestrated by Kaushal Niroula, a SF New College exchange student from Nepal along with 2 other students including Craig McCarthy of Daly City. Miguel Bustamante was the alleged murderer. In 2010 the three faced trial on murder charges. McCarthy (30) pleaded guilty to lesser charges and testified against the others. The plot to kill Lambert, sell his home and take his assets also included Danny Garcia and SF attorney David Replogle. On Dec 3, 2011, Replogle and Bustamante were convicted of 10 criminal counts including first-degree murder. On Sep 7, 2012, Niroula and Garcia were convicted of first-degree murder and other charges.
(SSFC, 5/23/10, p.A17)(SSFC, 9/5/10, p.C3)(SFC, 1/4/11, p.C2)(SFC, 9/8/12, p.C4)
2008 Dec 5, Nina Foch (b.1924), Dutch-born Hollywood film star, died in Los Angeles. Her films included “An American in Paris" (1951).
(SFC, 12/13/08, p.A5)
2008 Dec 5, In Afghanistan 3 Canadian soldiers were killed by a massive bomb, bringing to 100 the number who have lost their lives since the country's military mission there started in 2002.
(AP, 12/6/08)
2008 Dec 5, Australia's driest state was forced to purchase water for the first time to ensure adequate supplies in the midst of a drought. Karlene Maywald, state water security minister, said South Australia has purchased 61 billion gallons (231 gigaliters) of water so that Adelaide, the state capital, will have enough water for 2009 even if the drought continues.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, In southern China about 100 factory owners and employees held up red protest banners outside a government building, demanding that officials help them collect more than $13 million in debts from an electronics factory that recently closed.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, In northeast Colombia suspected leftist rebels attacked a small police convoy with explosives and automatic weapons, killing eight police officers and wounding one. Police blamed the attack on the National Liberation Army (ELN), which operates in the oil-producing region bordering Venezuela.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, A boat from the Dominican Republic was found adrift. 2 survivors were found by fisherman and 49 others were presumed dead. Migrants had set off on Nov 13 in search of jobs in Puerto Rico.
(AP, 12/6/08)
2008 Dec 5, India and Russia signed a civilian nuclear deal that would see Russia build four nuclear reactors for power-starved India.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, Police in India arrested two Indian men accused of illegally buying mobile phone cards used by the gunmen in the Mumbai attacks. In eastern India suspected Maoist rebels killed five police officers in an ambush.
(AP, 12/6/08)(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, Iranian state radio said police confirmed that a militant group active in Iran has killed all 16 police officers it abducted in June. Shortly after the abduction, the Sunni Muslim Jundallah group said it had executed two of the officers and threatened to kill the remaining 14 unless imprisoned members of the group were released.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, In Iraq three women were killed in Balad Ruz, north of Baghdad, when a bomb planted in a radio exploded.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, Israeli defense officials reinstated a ban on international journalists entering the Gaza Strip, despite protests from the heads of major news organizations and an appeal to the country's Supreme Court.
(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 5, Japan approved a law that will grant citizenship to all children born out of wedlock to Japanese fathers who acknowledge them, regardless of the nationality of their mothers.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, Kyrgyzstan's state radio station was reported to have taken BBC programming off the airwaves, days after withdrawing broadcasting rights from US-funded Radio Liberty's Kyrgyz Service.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, Gerardo Garay, Mexico's former acting federal police chief, was accused of collaborating with a notorious cartel and stealing money from a mansion during a raid to bust a drug trafficking ring. Victor Serrano (24), a hit team chief, was wounded and 3 alleged gang members died in a shootout in Mexicali. 14 others were arrested.
(AP, 12/5/08)(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 5, In Pakistan a car bomb devastated a busy street in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing 30 people and injuring about a hundred.
(AP, 12/5/08)(AP, 12/6/08)(Econ, 12/13/08, p.50)
2008 Dec 5, In Romania Constantin Ticu Dumitrescu (80), once jailed as a communist-era "enemy of the state," died after years of fighting to reveal details of the country's troubled past.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II (79) died. He had presided over a vast post-Soviet revival of faith but struggled against the influence of other churches.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, In Saudi Arabia nearly 3 million Muslims from all over the world gathered in Mecca, on the eve of the start of the annual hajj pilgrimage.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, In Somalia 12 people were killed as mortar shells rained down on homes and a small market in Mogadishu.
(SFC, 12/6/08, p.A5)
2008 Dec 5, In southern Thailand 4 people were killed by a bomb at a drugstore suspected to have been planted by Muslim insurgents.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, The leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan met for Turkish-sponsored talks aimed at reducing tensions over militant attacks along the countries' lawless border.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2009 Dec 5, The Defense Advance Research projects Agency (DARPA) conducted an experiment challenging teams around the country to locate the submit the correct geographic coordinates of 10 weather balloons in return for a $40,000 cash prize. Over 4,000 teams participated and the winning answer came after 8 hours and 56 minutes. Social networking sites played a major role in the game theory simulation. Riley Crane, a post doc research fellow at MIT’s media lab, led the winning team using an elaborate information gathering pyramid.
(SFC, 12/7/09, p.A9)
2009 Dec 5, It was reported that US federal regulators have approved the use of the name Calistoga as an appellation for vintners in Calistoga, Ca. James Barrett, proprietor of the Chateau Montelena winery, had begun petitioning the Treasury Dept. for the name in 2003.
(SFC, 12/5/09, p.D1)
2009 Dec 5, In Ohio a barn fire killed two workers and 43 horses at a harness racing track in Lebanon.
(AP, 12/7/09)
2009 Dec 5, Afghan officials said US Marines and Afghan troops have killed at least seven Taliban fighters in Operation Cobra’s Anger in Helmand province. In eastern Afghanistan a US service member was killed by a planted bomb.
(AP, 12/5/09)(AP, 12/6/09)
2009 Dec 5, Australia welcomed a 90 billion dollar (82 billion US) deal to supply liquefied natural gas (LNG) to a Japanese power company in what is believed to be the country's biggest export sales contract.
(AFP, 12/6/09)
2009 Dec 5, Austrian artist Alfred Hrdlicka (81) died. His controversial works in metal, paint and pencil alienated as much as attracted the public.
(AP, 12/5/09)
2009 Dec 5, In Equatorial Guinea Gen. Sekouba Konate, the No. 2 of the military junta, returned to the country overnight, helping fill a dangerous power vacuum after the president was shot by his top aide and evacuated for emergency treatment.
(AP, 12/5/09)
2009 Dec 5, In Haiti Francesco Fantoli (54), an Italian journalist, was mortally wounded by gunmen who may have tried to rob him outside a bank in Port-au-Prince. He recently founded a soccer school in the southern city of Jacmel, where he often lived.
(AP, 12/6/09)
2009 Dec 5, In Indonesia an ecumenical group launched more than 10,000 twinkling paper lanterns into the night sky above Carnaval Beach in Jakarta, setting a world record. Freedom Faithnet Global said it organized the lantern release as a symbol of hope and prayer as part of annual celebrations. This year's celebrations have an environmental focus.
(AP, 12/7/09)
2009 Dec 5, In Italy thousands of people gathered in Rome for “No Berlusconi Day," a gathering born on the Internet to protest against Premier Silvio Berlusconi.
(Econ, 12/5/09, p.61)(http://tinyurl.com/yhy5mnt)
2009 Dec 5, Italian police found convicted Mafioso Gianni Nicchi (28), alleged to be Cosa Nostra's No. 2 leader, hiding in an apartment in Palermo. Nicchi, a fugitive since 2006, was convicted last year of extortion and sentenced to 18 years in prison. Authorities in Milan arrested Gaetano Fidanzati (74) as he strolled down a street. Fidanzati is a reputed longtime Cosa Nostra boss of a Palermo crime clan and has been a fugitive for two years.
(AP, 12/5/09)
2009 Dec 5, Italian tax police said that they had seized works by Van Gogh, Picasso, Cezanne and other giants of art in a crackdown on assets hidden by Calisto Tanzi, the disgraced founder of the collapsed dairy company Parmalat.
(AP, 12/5/09)
2009 Dec 5, Morocco expelled five foreign Christian missionaries for holding "undeclared meetings" in the mainly Muslim north African kingdom. Two of the foreigners came from South Africa, two from Switzerland and one from Guatemala. They were part of a group that also included 12 Moroccans, who were freed the same day.
(AFP, 12/8/09)
2009 Dec 5, In western Nepal hundreds of protesters torched vehicles and vandalized shops after three people died in clashes between police and illegal forest settlers.
(AP, 12/5/09)
2009 Dec 5, Philippine Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo placed Maguindanao province under martial law. Government troops were reported to have taken Andal Ampatuan Sr., the former provincial governor, into custody for his clan’s role in the Nov 23 massacre that left 57 dead.
(SFC, 12/5/09, p.A2)
2009 Dec 5, In Russia a blaze sparked by onstage fireworks tore through the Lame Horse nightclub ceiling covered in decorative twigs and plastic sheeting, killing at least 136 people and critically injuring about 90 in the industrial city of Perm in the Ural Mountains. It was the country’s deadliest fire since the fall of the Soviet Union. By late December the death toll reached 152 with 74 people still hospitalized. In 2013 club owner Anatoly Zak was convicted of creating conditions that violate safety regulations. He was sentenced to nine years and 10 months in prison.
(AP, 12/5/09)(AP, 12/10/09)(AP, 12/25/09)(AP, 4/30/13)
2009 Dec 5, In Sudan's Darfur region 2 Rwandan peacekeepers were shot dead and one wounded, in the second deadly attack on their contingent in 24 hours. The next day a former Darfur rebel group captured 3 gunmen who allegedly killed the 5 Rwandan peacekeepers.
(Reuters, 12/5/09)(AFP, 12/8/09)
2009 Dec 5, Taiwan's ruling party lost ground in closely watched local elections described by analysts as a test of China-friendly President Ma Ying-jeou's performance during 19 months in office.
(AFP, 12/5/09)
2010 Dec 5, Pres. Obama honored 5 individuals for this year’s Kennedy Center Honors. They included Oprah Winfrey, Beatle Paul McCartney, dancer-choreographer Bill T. Jones, country singer Merle Haggard, and Broadway composer Jerry Herman.
(SFC, 12/6/10, p.A8)
2010 Dec 5, Don Meredith (72), one of the most recognizable figures of the early Dallas Cowboys and an original member of ABC's "Monday Night Football" broadcast team, died.
(AP, 12/6/10)
2010 Dec 5, In Afghanistan a Taliban suicide bomber blew himself up next to a string of shop stalls inside the eastern Gardez army base, killing two NATO service members and at least two civilians. In the south another NATO service member was killed in an insurgent attack while an Afghan employee of an American contractor was shot dead in the city of Lashkar Gah. A British soldier was killed during an operation in the Nad-e Ali District of Helmand province. Supporting fire from a US aircraft was suspected. He was the 346th death among British forces and civilian defense workers in Afghanistan since 2002. Four Afghan election commission employees were arrested in a sign that the political intrigue over September's fraud-tainted parliamentary election is not over.
(AP, 12/5/10)(AP, 12/6/10)
2010 Dec 5, In Argentina Spanish and Portuguese-speaking nations wrapped up their annual meeting by adopting a provision threatening exclusion for any member country that doesn't abide by democratic process.
(AP, 12/5/10)
2010 Dec 5, Mike Hancock (64), a member of the British House of Commons Defense Committee, and the European Security and Defense Assembly of the Western EU, said that his Russian assistant, Katia Zatuliveter (25), is facing deportation as a suspected spy. On Nov 29, 2011, a special immigration tribunal ruled that Zatuliveter can remain in Britain because she does not pose a threat to national security.
(AP, 12/5/10)(AP, 11/29/11)
2010 Dec 5, In southwest China at least 22 people died and one person was severely burned when a spreading grassland fire swept through a mountainous Tibetan region.
(Reuters, 12/5/10)
2010 Dec 5, Colombian officials said a landslide following weeks of drenching rains has buried more than 50 homes in the northwest. Rescue workers soon recovered 47 bodies. As many as 80 people remained missing and feared dead.
(AP, 12/5/10)(AP, 12/6/10)(AP, 12/8/10)
2010 Dec 5, Egypt held runoff parliamentary elections. President Hosni Mubarak's ruling party won a sweeping victory after the two main opposition groups decided to boycott in protest of alleged fraud in the first round. Mubarak's party won 420 of 508 seats in parliamentary polls.
(AP, 12/5/10)(AP, 12/6/10)(AFP, 12/6/10)
2010 Dec 5, A shark tore the arm off an elderly German tourist at an Egyptian Red Sea resort, killing her almost immediately, only days after sharks badly mauled four other European tourists in the waters.
(AP, 12/5/10)
2010 Dec 5, Iran claimed it could now use domestically mined uranium to produce nuclear fuel, giving the country complete control over a process the West suspects is geared toward producing weapons.
(AP, 12/5/10)
2010 Dec 5, An Israeli fire department official said the huge forest fire in Israel's north is under control. The fire burned half of one of Israel's largest wooded areas over four days. 42 Israelis were killed in the fire.
(AP, 12/5/10)(AP, 1/5/11)
2010 Dec 5, In southern Italy a speeding car plowed head-on into a group of cyclists, killing eight of them. Police said the driver had been smoking marijuana.
(AP, 12/5/10)
2010 Dec 5, In Mexico armed commandos attacked two drug rehabilitation centers in Ciudad Juarez, killing four people and wounding five.
(AP, 12/6/10)
2010 Dec 5, Nigeria's military acknowledged that raids in pursuit of an alleged gang leader in the main oil-producing region may have killed civilians, but insisted only militants were targeted. On Dec 15 the military said 14 people, including 8 soldiers and 6 civilians, were killed during the operation targeting a notorious gang leader.
(AFP, 12/5/10)(AFP, 12/15/10)
2010 Dec 5, Russian news reported that a Proton rocket and its payload of three GLONASS-M navigation satellites has fallen into the Pacific Ocean after failing to reach orbit. They were to be part of Russia's satellite navigation system competing with the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS). The mishap eventually cost space chief Anatoly Perminov his job.
(AP, 12/5/10)(AP, 8/18/11)
2010 Dec 5, Suspected Somali pirates hijacked the M.V. Jahan Moni, a Bangladeshi ship carrying nickel ore in the Arabian Sea and appeared to be headed to the lawless East African nation. The 25 Bangladeshis on the cargo ship included the wife of one crewman. The Moni was released on March 14, 2011, followed a ransom said to be $4.2 million.
(AP, 12/6/10)(AP, 3/14/11)
2010 Dec 5, Former South African leader Thabo Mbeki sought to mediate an end to a dispute over Ivory Coast's presidential election that has threatened to trigger unrest in the divided West African nation.
(Reuters, 12/5/10)
2010 Dec 5, In Uruguay Maria Esther Gatti de Islas (92), a human rights activist, died. She helped found Uruguay's organization of relatives of people who disappeared during South America's "dirty wars."
(AP, 12/6/10)
2010 Dec 5, In Venezuela voters in several regions elected governors in two states and mayors in 11 municipalities, including the country's second-largest city. An opposition candidate won the mayorship of Venezuela's second-largest city of Maracaibo. Candidates from Chavez's ruling party captured 7 of the 11 mayorships and one state.
(AP, 12/5/10)(AP, 12/6/10)
2011 Dec 5, The US said it is vacating the Shamsi air base in Pakistan used by American drones that target Taliban and al-Qaida militants, complying with a key demand made by Islamabad in retaliation for the NATO airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.
(AP, 12/5/11)
2011 Dec 5, A team led by astronomers at the University of California, Berkeley, reported the discovery of two gigantic black holes, each one 10 billion times the mass of our sun, in clusters of elliptical galaxies more than 300 million light years away.
(AP, 12/6/11)
2011 Dec 5, NASA scientists reported that a planet dubbed Kepler22b, first detected in 2009, exists in a habitable zone of a solar system 600 light-years away.
(SFC, 12/6/11, p.A1)
2011 Dec 5, Angela Zhang (17) of Cupertino, Ca, won a $100,000 scholarship, at the Siemens Foundation's annual high school science competition, for research that created a tiny particle she likened to a "Swiss army knife of cancer treatments" because of its precision in targeting cancer tumors.
(AP, 12/6/11)
2011 Dec 5, Rachelle Grimmer (38), Texas woman who for months was unable to qualify for food stamps, pulled a gun in a state welfare office and staged a 7-hour standoff with police that ended with her shooting her two children before killing herself. The children, a 10-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl, remained in critical condition. Both children died of their wounds.
(AP, 12/6/11)(AP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 5, In southern Afghanistan a minibus full of civilians struck a roadside bomb, setting off an explosion that killed five passengers in Uruzgan province. Militants abducted 11 Afghan policemen during an ambush in Wardooj district of Badakhshan province. Two policemen were killed and four others wounded during the kidnapping. The 11 policemen were freed on Dec 16 and some two dozen suspected insurgents were arrested.
(AP, 12/5/11)(AP, 12/17/11)
2011 Dec 5, Belgium’s King Albert II named Elio Di Rupo as the prime minister ending a record 541 days the country has gone without a government. Di Rupo will be the first French-speaking prime minister in nearly 40 years.
(SFC, 12/6/11, p.A2)
2011 Dec 5, Brazilian police arrested a man suspected in the shooting deaths of eight men over the past two months. Ronis de Oliveira Bastos (22) was arrested on the outskirts of Sao Paulo while riding a bicycle and armed with a .38 caliber revolver.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 5, In Cameroon 15 people were killed and 40 were seriously injured in a bus crash in the northwest.
(AP, 12/5/11)
2011 Dec 5, In France Greenpeace activists broke into the Electricite de France’s Nogent-sur-Seine plant. EDF said 9 people were arrested.
(SFC, 12/6/11, p.A2)
2011 Dec 5, France and Germany reached a compromise agreement to seek mandatory limits on budget deficits among debt-laden European governments.
(SFC, 12/6/11, p.A9)
2011 Dec 5, In Bonn, Germany, a global conference on Afghanistan's future opened. It was overshadowed by the absence of key regional player Pakistan. The US and other nations vowed to keep supporting Afghanistan after most foreign forces leave the country in 2014.
(AP, 12/5/11)
2011 Dec 5, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was granted permission to apply to England's highest court in his year-long battle to block his extradition to Sweden over rape and sexual assault allegations.
(AFP, 12/5/11)
2011 Dec 5, Egyptian voters headed to the polls for two days of runoffs in the country's first parliamentary elections since Hosni Mubarak's ouster. Islamist parties have already captured an overwhelming majority of the votes in the first round.
(AP, 12/5/11)
2011 Dec 5, Paris, France, launched an electric car sharing program with 250 vehicles. 3000 vehicles were planned for the program over the next two years.
(SFC, 12/5/11, p.A3)
2011 Dec 5, The world court ruled that Greece was wrong to block Macedonia's bid to join NATO in 2008 because of a long-running dispute over the fledgling country's use of the name Macedonia.
(AP, 12/5/11)
2011 Dec 5, In Iraq 5 bomb attacks targeting Shiite pilgrims south of Baghdad killed some 30 people and wounded nearly 100 others during Ashura, an important religious ritual for the Muslim sect.
(AP, 12/5/11)(Econ, 1/21/12, p.52)
2011 Dec 5, Ireland’s Expenditure Minister Brendan Howlin announced $2.9 billion in spending cuts to help reduce the country’s debt. Budget cuts will close 31 police stations around the country.
(SSFC, 12/11/11, p.A4)
2011 Dec 5, Kenya military jets bombed two al-Shabab camps in Somalia, killing an unknown number of militants. 5 al-Shabab fighters on a boat attacked a Kenyan naval vessel. The navy sunk the attacking boat. A roadside bomb exploded in Kenya’s largest refugee camp near the border with Somalia, killing one police officer and wounding three.
(AP, 12/5/11)(AP, 12/6/11)
2011 Dec 5, Mauritanian police said they have arrested two Western Saharan men suspected of kidnapping an Italian and two Spanish aid workers in Algeria on October 23.
(AFP, 12/5/11)
2011 Dec 5, In the Philippines several armed men abducted Warren Rodwell (53) of Australia from his home in the seaside town of Ipil on Mindanao island, then fled on speed boats. The kidnappers mailed four pictures of Rodwell before Christmas to his Filipino wife then called her to demand an initial ransom of $23,000 (1 million pesos). The ransom was soon raised to $2 million. Rodwell was released on March 23, 2013. On May 15, 2015, Jun Malban, a former Philippine policeman and cousin of one of the nation's top Islamic militants, was deported from Malaysia back to the Philippines for his role in the abduction.
(AFP, 12/5/11)(AP, 1/1/12)(AP, 1/5/12)(SSFC, 2/24/13, p.A3)(AFP, 5/18/15)
2011 Dec 5, In Russia PM Vladimir Putin's party saw its majority in parliament weaken sharply, according to preliminary election results. International observers pointed to procedural violations and serious indications of ballot stuffing after a campaign slanted in favor of United Russia. Only seven parties were allowed to field candidates for parliament this year, while the most vocal opposition groups were barred from the race.
(AP, 12/5/11)
2011 Dec 5, Scottish artist Martin Boyce (44), whose works include a modernist reworking of a library table and artificial trees, won Britain's Turner Prize at a ceremony in Gateshead, north-east England.
(AFP, 12/5/11)
2011 Dec 5, In Slovenia preliminary results show Positive Slovenia, a center-left party, defeated the favored conservatives. The results also indicated that women won 28 of 90 seats, the most since the country gained independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1991.
(AP, 12/5/11)
2011 Dec 5, Johannesburg police fired rubber bullets to break up a group of demonstrators gathered in front of the ruling ANC party headquarters to protest South Africa's alleged involvement in fraud in the November 28 election in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
(AFP, 12/5/11)
2011 Dec 5, In South Africa Global Witness said it has left the Kimberley Process, accusing the international diamond regulatory group of refusing to address links between diamonds, violence and tyranny. The rights watchdog cited what it called failures in Ivory Coast, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.
(AP, 12/5/11)
2011 Dec 5, In Syria 36 bodies were dumped in the streets of Homs. Syria agreed to allow Arab League observers but demanded that the Arab League scrap recent decisions taken against Damascus, including economic sanctions and suspending the country from the Arab League when a protocol allowing observers is signed.
(AP, 12/5/11)(AP, 12/6/11)(SFC, 12/6/11, p.A5)(SFC, 12/7/11, p.A4)
2011 Dec 5, The UN Security Council toughened sanctions against Eritrea which neighboring governments accuse of plotting terrorist attacks and supporting Somali Islamist rebels.
(AFP, 12/5/11)
2011 Dec 5, Vietnam officials said more than 100,000 people have been killed or injured by land mines or other abandoned explosives since the Vietnam War ended nearly 40 years ago, and clearing all of the country will take decades more. The United States used about 16 million tons of bombs and ammunition while allied with the former South Vietnam government.
(AP, 12/5/11)
2011 Dec 5, In Yemen two women were killed and six people were wounded when Pres. Saleh's forces fired on a crowd of anti-regime protesters in Taez.
(AFP, 12/6/11)
2012 Dec 5, Dave Brubeck (b.1920), American pianist, jazz composer and band leader, died one day short of his 92nd birthday.
(SFC, 12/6/12, p.A1)
2012 Dec 5, Argentina filed complaints with the World Trade Organization (WTO) over trade barriers it blames for keeping its beef and lemons out of the United States and blocking biodiesel sales to Europe.
(AP, 12/5/12)
2012 Dec 5, It was reported that Brazilian law enforcement agencies have begun “Operation Purification" against alleged corruption iwthin the police force in Rio de Janeiro state.
(SFC, 12/5/12, p.A2)
2012 Dec 5, Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer (104) died in Rio de Janeiro. He had designed Brazil's futuristic capital and much of the United Nations complex.
(AP, 12/6/12)(Econ, 12/22/12, p.154)
2012 Dec 5, In Canada a court ruled that Toronto Mayor Rob Ford can stay in power pending an appeal of a conflict of interest ruling that ordered him out of his job as leader of Canada's biggest city. Ford won his appeal.
(Reuters, 12/5/12)(Econ, 4/13/13, p.42)
2012 Dec 5, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi's supporters and opponents clashed outside the presidential palace in Cairo, pelting each other with rocks and fighting with sticks. At least 5 people were killed.
(AP, 12/5/12)(Econ, 12/8/12, p.51)
2012 Dec 5, Guatemala police arrested software company founder John McAfee for entering the country illegally, ending his bizarre weekslong journey as a blogging fugitive claiming to be persecuted by authorities in Belize.
(AP, 12/6/12)
2012 Dec 5, In Indonesia Jakarta police spokesman Col. Rikwanto said any police officer over 100kg (220 pounds) must follow a weight-loss program started because of the growing number of overweight officers and the perception that they are unable to provide public protection.
(AP, 12/5/12)
2012 Dec 5, In Iran a magnitude 5.5 earthwuake hit South Khorasan province late today. At least 6 people were killed.
(AP, 12/6/12)
2012 Dec 5, Kenya’s Lewa Wildlife Conservancy said that two male black rhinos and two female black rhinos were killed over the weekend. The four deaths brought Lewa's rhino population to 71. Kenya had about 600 rhinos in total.
(AP, 12/5/12)
2012 Dec 5, In Lebanon gunmen loyal to opposite sides in neighboring Syria's civil war battled in the streets of Tripoli where two days of fighting killed at least five people and wounded 45.
(AP, 12/5/12)
2012 Dec 5, The 148m (485-foot) Baltic Ace sank after colliding with the 134m (440-foot) container ship Corvus J in darkness near busy shipping lanes some 65 kilometers (40 miles) off the coast of the southern Netherlands. 5 bodies were recovered and 6 others remained missing.
(AP, 12/6/12)(SFC, 12/7/12, p.A2)
2012 Dec 5, In Northern Ireland more than 1,500 Protestants rallied in the northern suburb of Carrickfergus demanding that the British flag be restored atop Belfast's municipal headquarters. The protest soon descended into attacks on riot police.
(AP, 12/6/12)
2012 Dec 5, In northwestern Pakistan a pair of suicide bombers rammed their truck filled with explosives into the gate of an army camp, killing three soldiers and wounding more than 20 in Wana, South Waziristan.
(AP, 12/5/12)
2012 Dec 5, In Russia’s North Caucuses region journalist Kazbek Gekkiyev was gunned down in Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkariya province.
(SFC, 12/7/12, p.A2)
2012 Dec 5, A South African judge sentenced Xolile Mngeni, the triggerman in the 2010 honeymoon slaying of Swedish bride Anni Dewani, to life in prison, calling the shooter "a merciless and evil person" who deserved the maximum punishment for his crime.
(AP, 12/5/12)
2012 Dec 5, A South African judge sentenced hip-hop star Molemo Maarohanye, best known by his stage name Jub Jub, and Themba Tshabalala, to 25 years each in prison for the killings of four schoolchildren in a drag-race crash on March 8, 2010.
(AP, 12/5/12)
2012 Dec 5, The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa announced that it has accepted a $5.8 billion deal with French company Alstom SA to refurbish the nation's passenger trains.
(AP, 12/5/12)
2012 Dec 5, A South African military aircraft on an unknown mission to an area near former President Nelson Mandela's village crashed in a mountain range, killing all 11 people onboard.
(AP, 12/6/12)
2012 Dec 5, Transparency International ranked Uganda at 130 out of 176 countries. An audacious scam in which up to $13 million in donor money was embezzled in the office of Uganda's prime minister has brought several European donors to freeze aid to Uganda.
(AP, 12/5/12)
2013 Dec 5, The US Defense Department said Djamel Saiid Ali Ameziane and Bensayah Belkecem, two Algerian detainees at the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, have been repatriated despite protest from the prisoners who feared persecution.
(AFP, 12/5/13)
2013 Dec 5, In the US fast food workers held some 100 rallies across the country calling for an increase in the minimum wage from the current $7.25/hr.
(SFC, 12/6/13, p.C7)
2013 Dec 5, A study by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said water pollution at the Camp Lejeune military base in North Carolina has been linked to increased risk of birth defects and childhood cancers.
(Reuters, 12/6/13)
2013 Dec 5, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signed landmark legislation to reform the state’s underfunded pension system. The reforms cut benefits for most employees and retirees. Unions immediately threatened a lawsuit. On may 8, 2015, the state Supreme Court struck down the legislation saying it would leave pension promises diminished or impaired.
(SFC, 12/6/13, p.A10)(SFC, 5/9/15, p.A5)
2013 Dec 5, Australia and Indonesia announced that they would set up a hotline as part of efforts to repair relations following media reports last month that Canberra had spied on top Indonesian officials.
(Reuters, 12/5/13)
2013 Dec 5, Heavy gunfire erupted in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic. French troops killed several rebels who were bearing down on them in a pickup truck. Ex-Seleka fighters stormed Amite Hospital and abducted at least nine patients by gunpoint in front of horrified medical staff. The bodies of 11 young men were later found just outside the hospital. Over 280 people were killed in the violence in Bangui.
(AP, 12/5/13)(AP, 12/6/13)(AP, 12/8/13)
2013 Dec 5, Ethiopia said it has repatriated over 100,000 citizens from Saudi Arabia, following a violent crackdown against illegal immigrants in the oil-rich kingdom.
(AFP, 12/5/13)
2013 Dec 5, In Iraq gunmen shot dead magazine editor Kawa Ahmed Germyani (32). He was investigating corruption in the autonomous Kurdistan region. Police stormed a mall in Kirkuk killing 3 militants. Attacks elsewhere in the country left 7 dead.
(AFP, 12/6/13)(SFC, 12/6/13, p.A2)
2013 Dec 5, Kenyan lawmakers adopted amendments to a controversial media bill despite an opposition walk out and international concern about press freedom.
(AFP, 12/5/13)
2013 Dec 5, In Libya unknown assailants shot an American teacher to death as he was jogging in Benghazi.
(AP, 12/5/13)
2013 Dec 5, Moldova’s Constitutional Court ruled that Romanian is now the official language. The language, basically the same as Romanian, had been renamed Moldovan under Soviet rule.
(SFC, 12/6/13, p.A2)
2013 Dec 5, Myanmar’s Rangoon Univ. reopened to undergraduates. It had been closed since 1988 following failed student uprisings.
(SFC, 12/5/13, p.A6)
2013 Dec 5, In southwest Pakistan a bomb exploded outside a mosque in Chaman, the main border town in southwestern Baluchistan, killing at least one person.
(AP, 12/5/13)
2013 Dec 5, Russia said it has begun a criminal inquiry into suspected child trafficking in the US following a Reuters investigation which found that adopted children, some born in Russia, were being traded via the Internet.
(Reuters, 12/5/13)
2013 Dec 5, Hurricane-force gusts hit Scotland, causing a fatal truck accident, halting all trains and leaving tens of thousands of homes without electricity.
(AP, 12/5/13)
2013 Dec 5, In Somalia at least 8 people were killed when a suicide car bomber rammed a convoy in the northern port of Bossasso, a Puntland region harboring Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab insurgents where tensions are high ahead of elections in January.
(AFP, 12/5/13)
2013 Dec 5, In South Africa former President and anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela (b.1918) died. He shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.
(AP, 12/6/13)
2013 Dec 5, The South African Cabinet ordered that an inter-ministerial task team report on the funding of controversial security upgrades to President Jacob Zuma's private home be released to the public.
(AP, 12/5/13)
2013 Dec 5, In Sudan a tribal dispute on the border of the Darfur region killed 38 people including 16 Maaliya and 22 Hamar tribesmen.
(AFP, 12/11/13)
2013 Dec 5, Sweden's public broadcaster said it has obtained secret documents leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden suggesting a Swedish spy agency has been a key supplier of intelligence on Russian leaders to the NSA.
(AP, 12/5/13)
2013 Dec 5, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Jihadists in northern Syria have kidnapped more than 50 Kurds in the past three days.
(AFP, 12/5/13)
2013 Dec 5, In Yemen a suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laden car at the Defense Ministry in Sanaa, killing 18 soldiers and wounding at least 40. Officials said 11 gunmen also were killed in a firefight between troops and a carload of attackers who arrived after the blast. Gunmen shot and killed a Western doctor and a Filipina nurse in front of their colleagues in a hospital inside the compound of the defense ministry. Most of the attackers were Saudi nationals. Yemen’s branch of al-Qaida took responsibility and on Dec 21 apologized for the attack on the hospital that killed 52 people.
(Reuters, 12/5/13)(Reuters, 12/6/13)(SFC, 12/7/13, p.A4)(AP, 12/22/13)
2014 Dec 5, President Barack Obama nominated ex-Pentagon official Ashton Carter as the new defense secretary of the country. He will replace Chuck Hagel.
(Reuters, 12/5/14)
2014 Dec 5, NASA’s Orion spacecraft made its first test flight following liftoff at Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The 4.5 hour test flight ended in the Pacific Ocean off Mexico.
(Reuters, 12/5/14)(SFC, 12/6/14, p.C1)
2014 Dec 5, A Phoenix cop shot to death an unarmed black man during a fight and the authorities said the cop thought the person had a pistol.
(Reuters, 12/5/14)
2014 Dec 5, Bill Cosby's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was reported vandalized with graffiti. Los Angeles police were investigating the vandalism of comedian.
(Reuters, 12/5/14)
2014 Dec 5, A San Francisco court convicted police officers Edmond Robles of five felony charges and Sgt. Ian Furminger guilty of four in a case related to officers stealing from drug dealers. On Feb 23, 2015, Furminger was sentenced to 41 months in prison. On March 18, 2015, Robles was sentenced to 39 months in prison.
(SFC, 12/6/14, p.A1)(SFC, 1/24/15, p.A1)(SFC, 3/19/15, p.E1)
2014 Dec 5, It was reported that San Francisco had accrued a budget surplus of almost $22 million for the last fiscal year.
(SFC, 12/5/14, p.D1)
2014 Dec 5, The US Department of Justice said that it’s investigating several complains concerning the University of New Mexico's conduct of reported sexual assaults & sexual persecution of students.
(Reuters, 12/5/14)
2014 Dec 5, Fabiola (86), Belgium's dowager queen, died. The Spanish-born Fabiola survived her husband, King Baudouin, by 11 years.
(AP, 12/12/14)
2014 Dec 5, The British Museum plunged into a geopolitical tempest by lending one of the disputed Greek Elgin Marbles to Russia’s Hermitage Museum.
(SFC, 12/6/14, p.A2)
2014 Dec 5, Chinese authorities arrested ex-domestic security Chief Zhou Yongkang and barred him from the ruling Communist Party.
(Reuters, 12/5/14)
2014 Dec 5, A French-US fund announced it will pay thousands of Holocaust survivors and family members in the United States and elsewhere will be entitled to compensation from a $60 million.
(Reuters, 12/5/14)
2014 Dec 5, German Chancellor Angela Merkel shook hands with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and said her country will continue to support Afghanistan after NATO combat troops pull out from the country.
(Reuters, 12/5/14)
2014 Dec 5, In India’s section of Kashmir a series of rebel attacks killed 21 people, including 8 Indian soldiers and 3 police officers. The rebels had crossed over from Pakistani territory.
(AP, 12/8/14)(Econ, 12/13/14, p.41)
2014 Dec 5, In India Uber taxi driver Shiv Kumar Yadav raped a young female passenger (25) in New Delhi. On Nov 3, 2015, Yadav was sentenced to life in prison.
(AFP, 10/20/15)(AP, 11/3/15)
2014 Dec 5, Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court withdrew their crimes against humanity charges against Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta. Kenyatta said he was "vindicated" after the ICC's decision.
(Reuters, 12/5/14)(SFC, 12/6/14, p.A4)
2014 Dec 5, The government of Maldives declared a state of emergency and has appealed for aid from India, Sri Lanka, the United States and China. Mohamed Shareef, a government minister, said: "We have declared a state of crisis and also informed the shopkeepers to issue bottle water free of charge."
(Reuters, 12/5/14)
2014 Dec 5, In Pakistan a 300-mile trench being built along the disputed border with Afghanistan was reported to have completed 110 miles in Baluchistan province.
(SFC, 12/5/14, p.A7)
2014 Dec 5, In Russia a court in Volgograd convicted four men for their roles in the twin suicide bombings that killed 34 people a year earlier.
(SFC, 12/6/14, p.A2)
2014 Dec 5, In Sierra Leone two more doctors died of Ebola bringing to 9 the number of local doctors killed by the disease.
(SSFC, 12/7/14, p.A4)
2014 Dec 5, Spain’s Marine Rescue Service rescued 29 African migrants from the 33-foot-long boat after finding it drifting in the Mediterranean Sea. Some 23 migrants were swept away to sea. On Jan 15 Police said two Cameroonian migrants have been arrested for allegedly killing up to 10 others by pushing them from the boat into stormy waters in a fight over a prayer session.
(AP, 12/8/14(AP, 1/15/15)
2014 Dec 5, In Syria clashes continued for a 2nd day as IS militants pushed to capture the Syrian air base at Deor el-Zour. 30 government troops and 27 jihadists were said to have died so far.
(SFC, 12/6/14, p.A3)
2014 Dec 5, Tashi Tsering (b.1929), Tibetan scholar, died in Lhasa. He was the founder of the corresponding education organization with headquarters in Lhasa, as well as the author of the trilingual dictionary (English, Chinese, Tibetan) “New Trilingual Dictionary" and an autobiography titled “The Struggle for Modern Tibet" (first published in 1999 by M.E. Sharpe).
(http://tinyurl.com/mp2bjlz)(Econ, 12/20/14, p.138)
2014 Dec 5, Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko said "If we give up Donetsk (airport), the enemy will be at Borispil or Gostomel or even in Lviv."
(Reuters, 12/5/14)
2015 Dec 5, The United States and its allies conducted 17 air strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and 12 in Syria.
(Reuters, 12/6/15)
2015 Dec 5, The New York Times published an editorial on its front page for the first time since 1920, using the rare, prominent placement to urge gun control following the latest mass shooting in the United States.
(AFP, 12/5/15)
2015 Dec 5, The Afghan Taliban released an audio message it said was from leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour, vehemently rejecting reports of his death in a firefight with his own commanders as "enemy propaganda".
(AFP, 12/5/15)
2015 Dec 5, A ship carrying 25 tons of radioactive waste arrived back in Australia, met by activists who warned against the vast nation becoming a nuclear dumping ground. Australia sent spent nuclear fuel to France for reprocessing in the 1990s and early 2000s over four shipments, and it has now been returned for long-term storage.
(AFP, 12/5/15)
2015 Dec 5, In northern Bangladesh unidentified attackers hurled three homemade bombs on the premises of a Hindu temple during a drama performance early today, injuring 10 people outside the Kantajir temple during an annual fair in Dinajpur district.
(AP, 12/5/15)
2015 Dec 5, In Britain Storm Desmond whipped across the country. A 90-year-old man died near a north London Underground station after he was apparently blown against the side of a moving bus.
(AFP, 12/6/15)
2015 Dec 5, Muhaydin Mire (29) slashed a man (56) at the east London Leytonstone metro station, reportedly screaming "this is for Syria", in what police described as a terrorist incident. On June 8 a British court convicted Mire, a mentally ill taxi driver, of attempted murder.
(Reuters, 12/6/15)(AFP, 12/7/15)(AP, 6/8/16)
2015 Dec 5, In Chad four female suicide bombers attacked the Chadian island of Koulfoua on Lake Chad. State TV said the provisional death toll was 19 dead, including the four kamikazes, and 130 injured.
(Reuters, 12/5/15)
2015 Dec 5, Chinese media reported that Zhang Yun (56), head of the country’s 4th largest state bank, has resigned citing personal reasons amid reports of his involvement in a corruption investigation.
(SSFC, 12/6/15, p.A6)
2015 Dec 5, In France negotiators from 195 nations delivered a blueprint for a pact to save mankind from disastrous global warming. Negotiators agreed to a draft accord that still leaves hundreds of points of dispute for ministers to resolve next week.
(AFP, 12/5/15)(Reuters, 12/5/15)
2015 Dec 5, Guyana's Government Information Agency said British petroleum giant Tullow Oil PLC will be awarded an exploration license near an offshore basin where Exxon Mobil found large quantities of oil and gas in May.
(AP, 12/5/15)
2015 Dec 5, Iraqi President Fouad Massoum called the deployment of several hundred Turkish troops inside Iraq near the northern city of Mosul "a violation of international norms and law".
(Reuters, 12/5/15)
2015 Dec 5, In northern Lebanon suspected Islamist militant Mohammed Hamzeh killed himself, his wife and his mother, when he blew himself up during an army raid on his home in Deir Ammar.
(Reuters, 12/5/15)
2015 Dec 5, Lawmakers from Libya's two rival parliaments signed a declaration of principles aimed at ending the North African country's civil conflict.
(Reuters, 12/6/15)
2015 Dec 5, Malaysia's police said that they have arrested five people, including a European employed as a teacher, on suspicion of links with militant groups like the Islamic State and al-Qaeda. The arrests were made between Nov. 17 and Dec 1.
(Reuters, 12/5/15)
2015 Dec 5, Nigeria's intelligence agency said it has arrested nine alleged Boko Haram extremists plotting attacks on Abuja, the capital, over the festive season. All nine were detained in the past month and had infiltrated the capital in central Nigeria from the country's northeast.
(AP, 12/5/15)
2015 Dec 5, The main islands of the Seychelles voted in a presidential election with incumbent James Michel facing his first serious challenge after two terms in office. No candidate got more than 50 percent of the votes cast. A run-off was scheduled to be held in two weeks between incumbent President James Michel, Leader of the ruling Lepep party, and Wavel Ramkalawan, leader of the Seychelles National Party.
(AFP, 12/5/15)(Reuters, 12/6/15)
2015 Dec 5, Slovakia's leftist PM Robert Fico (51) promised to protect voters from international terrorism and unveiled a billion euro welfare plan as he launched campaign for a third term in office.
(Reuters, 12/5/15)
2015 Dec 5, Thousands of South Koreans, many wearing masks, marched in Seoul against conservative President Park Geun-hye, who had compared masked protesters to terrorists after clashes with police broke out at a rally last month.
(AP, 12/5/15)
2015 Dec 5, Syrian Turkmen rebel fighters seized three villages from the Islamic State group near the Turkish border in clashes over the last 24 hours that killed 13 from the ethnic minority.
(AFP, 12/5/15)
2015 Dec 5, In Turkey 3 members of the security forces were killed in clashes with militants the mainly Kurdish southeast.
(Reuters, 12/5/15)
2015 Dec 5, Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi met with a UN envoy in Aden to agree on peace talks with Shiite Houthi rebels set to begin in mid-December.
(AP, 12/5/15)
2015 Dec 5, In Yemen masked gunmen killed prominent Judge Mohsen Alwan, who was known for sentencing al-Qaida militants to prison in the southern port city of Aden.
(AP, 12/5/15)
2016 Dec 5, Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, a rival-turned-supporter of Donald Trump, overcame his stated qualms about a lack of government experience to accept the president-elect's nomination to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
(Reuters, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 5, The US State Dept. said that a fake US Embassy in Ghana has been shut down after operating for about a decade in Accra.
(SFC, 12/6/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 5, North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) ended his legal challenges to the election, conceding that he had lost his bid for a second term to Democrat Roy Cooper.
(CSM, 12/6/16)
2016 Dec 5, Brazilian police raided the homes of two former members of a parliamentary inquiry into graft at state oil company Petrobras, seeking evidence they extorted money from contractors who wanted to avoid being summoned as witnesses.
(Reuters, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 5, A Gambian court freed a prominent lawyer and 18 other political prisoners on bail pending an appeal of their jail sentence for "unlawful assembly", in a sign that President Yahya Jammeh's shock election defeat last week could end years of repression.
(Reuters, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 5, German police in the western city of Bochum arrested an Iraqi asylum-seeker (31) on suspicion of sexually assaulting two Chinese students. DNA evidence linked the man to an attack and attempted rape of a Chinese woman (21) in August, and of raping a Chinese woman (27) in November.
(AP, 12/6/16)
2016 Dec 5, Germany-based Volkswagen said it is launching a new company dedicated to car sharing and other "mobility services" in which people may need a ride but don't necessarily want to own the car.
(AP, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 5, German airline Air Berlin said it is selling its stake in Austrian carrier NIKI to Abu Dhabi-based Etihad for 300 million euros ($319 million).
(AP, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 5, Officials said a Greek court has refused to extradite the first three of eight Turkish servicemen who fled to Greece after the failed July 15 military coup.
(AP, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 5, Jayaram Jayalalithaa (68), chief minister of India’s Tamil Nadu state, died in Chennai following a massive weekend cardiac arrest. The former movie star who enjoyed god-like status was buried the next day alongside her on-screen lover. V.K. Sasikala, Jayalithaa’s live-in assistant soon claimed the mantle of chief minister forcing out O. Paneerselvam (OPS). On Feb 7 OPS declared that he had been unfairly forced from office by Sasikala.
(AP, 12/6/16)(Econ, 2/11/17, p.33)
2016 Dec 5, Indonesia announced that companies were banned from turning peatlands into palm oil and other types of plantations, and must restore peatlands they have degraded.
(Reuters, 12/6/16)
2016 Dec 5, Western-backed Iraqi forces have begun shelling parts of west Mosul, in preparation for a new front against Islamic State seven weeks into a difficult campaign to drive the militants from the city.
(Reuters, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 5, Doctors working in Kenyan state hospitals went on strike to demand fulfillment of a 2013 agreement between their union and the government that would raise their pay and improve working conditions.
(Reuters, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 5, Forces loyal to Libya's UN-backed government said they had seized full control of Sirte from the Islamic State group, in a major blow to the jihadists who battled for months to retain their bastion.
(AFP, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 5, Mexico struck a deal with Australia’s BHP Billiton to develop the Trion oil field in Mexico with state-oil firm Pemex.
(Econ, 12/10/16, p.62)
2016 Dec 5, Mexican police and marines killed 14 presumed criminal gang members in a shootout in the troubled Gulf coast state of Veracruz. Agents seized 13 assault rifles and a weapon capable of piercing armored vehicles.
(AP, 12/6/16)
2016 Dec 5, New Zealand PM john Key announced that he will submit his resignation on Dec 12 following eight years as leader.
(SFC, 12/6/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 5, Philippine VP Leni Robredo resigned her Cabinet post, citing "major differences in principles and values" with President Rodrigo Duterte and an unspecified plot to remove her from the vice presidency. She continued as VP.
(AP, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 5, Polish authorities said Lufthansa and General Electric will jointly invest some 250 million euros ($270 million) in Poland to build a plant that will service aircraft engines starting in 2018.
(AP, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 5, In northern Somalia soldiers allied to the Western-backed Somali government killed three fighters loyal to the Islamic State in Puntland as they pressed ahead toward the insurgents' main stronghold.
(Reuters, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 5, In Syria opposition rebel shelling in Aleppo killed two nurses and eight civilians.
(SFC, 12/6/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 5, Tunisia’s parliament's finance committee approved a budget draft that would tax lawyers between about $8 to $20 on each file they present to court. The levy was part of austerity measures proposed for 2017 by a government under pressure from international lenders to cut the fiscal deficit.
(Reuters, 12/6/16)
2016 Dec 5, The UN launched a record humanitarian appeal, asking for $22.2 billion in 2017 to help almost 93 million people hit by conflicts and natural disasters.
(AP, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 5, Vietnam punished two editors of a major newspaper which had earlier been fined for publishing what authorities said were false reports on toxic fish sauce. A total of 50 news organizations were fined in November for running reports about high arsenic levels found in fish sauce, causing widespread panic.
(AFP, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 5, In Yemen security officials said Shiite rebels have detained a number of Arab and African nationals, including more than 30 Egyptians, on suspicion of spying for the Saudi-led coalition fighting the rebels.
(AP, 12/5/16)
2017 Dec 5, US Army Colonel Ryan Dillon, spokesman for the United States-led international coalition fighting Islamic State, estimated that fewer than 3,000 fighters belonging to the hardline Sunni militant group remain in Iraq and Syria.
(Reuters, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, In the SF Bay Area unionized city workers of Oakland went on strike to push for better pay, less use of part-time workers and other demands. On Dec. 11 workers agreed to return to work as negotiations continued.
(SFC, 12/6/17, p.A1)(SFC, 12/12/17, p.A1)
2017 Dec 5, In California an overnight fire, known as the Creek Fire, consumed at least 2,500 acres in the foothills of Angeles National Forest north, forcing residents of some nearby San Fernando Valley communities north of Los Angeles to flee. Four fires in southern California levelled at least 180 structures and forced thousands to flee their homes. The Thomas fire in Ventura County remained out of control.
(Reuters, 12/5/17)(SFC, 12/6/17, p.A1)
2017 Dec 5, US Democratic Rep. John Conyers (88) of Michigan, the longest-serving member of the House, resigned following a number of sexual misconduct allegations in recent weeks.
(SFC, 12/6/17, p.A5)
2017 Dec 5, It was reported that an Argentine judge has ordered the arrest of Paraguay midfielder Jonathan Fabbro for alleged sexual assault of an underage girl.
(AP, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, Australia’s PM Malcolm Turnbull said that foreign interference in politics would be outlawed under updated treason and espionage laws.
(AP, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, Austria’s Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples will be allowed to marry in Austria from 2019, and said a law to the contrary violated the principle of non-discrimination.
(Reuters, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, British PM Theresa May scrambled to salvage a deal over the post-Brexit border in Ireland after it was rejected by her DUP allies. A day earlier Northern Ireland's small Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which keeps her Conservative minority government in office, blocked an agreement on a major issue holding up Brexit talks.
(AFP, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, The European Union put 17 non-EU countries on a blacklist of those it deems guilty of unfairly offering tax avoidance schemes. They Included: American Samoa, Bahrain, Barbados, Grenada, Guam, South Korea, Macau, Marshall Islands, Mongolia, Namibia, Palau, Panama, St. Lucia, Samoa, Trinidad & Tobago, Tunisia and United Arab Emirates. Over 40 more were put on a "grey list" to be monitored until they are fully committed to reforms.
(AP, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, Greek demonstrators in Athens broke into the Labor Ministry and clashed with riot police outside the prime minister's office, in protest against a new agreement between the country and bailout creditors that includes limiting the right to strike.
(AP, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, Mayors and residents of Greece's Aegean islands, which are sheltering more than 15,000 refugees and migrants, called for the government to relocate people from overcrowded camps into centers on the mainland.
(AFP, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, Honduras Pres. Juan Orlando Hernandez called late today for the Supreme Electoral Tribunal to re-examine all the votes scrutinized from the Nov. 26 election. He said he would be OK with that "because the people deserve respect." Police officers returned to duty after Pres. Hernandez paid Christmas bonuses, promised salary increases and offered to build apartments for officers.
(AP, 12/6/17)(SFC, 12/6/17, p.A4)
2017 Dec 5, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Iraqi federal and Kurdish regional judiciaries are violating the rights of Islamic State suspects with flawed trials, arbitrary detentions under harsh conditions and broad prosecutions.
(Reuters, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, Lebanese PM Saad Hariri said that he had withdrawn his resignation, a month after his shock announcement that he was quitting sparked political upheaval.
(AFP, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, A Macedonian court ordered three opposition MPs be held in judicial custody for a month while another three were placed under house arrest over an April attack on parliament.
(AFP, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, In Pakistan a roadside bomb killed six people and wounded eight others in Khaddi, a village in the North Waziristan tribal region.
(AP, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said US President Donald Trump informed Abbas that he intends to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem.
(Reuters, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the national police to rejoin anti-drug operations, the second time he has overturned previous decisions to remove the law enforcers from the brutal crackdown amid growing alarm over the deaths of thousands of suspects.
(AP, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, In the Philippines American cameraman and filmmaker Jesse Phinney (42) died in a jail on the island of Cebu. It was later reported that he had suffered blunt-force trauma, and his body had markings inconsistent with the official account by Philippine authorities that he hanged himself. The day before he was found dead, Phinney had been arrested on suspicion of violating human trafficking and child abuse laws.
(Reuters, 4/5/18)
2017 Dec 5, Former Romanian King Michael I (96), who was forced to abdicate by the communists in the aftermath of World War II, died in his residence in Aubonne, Switzerland.
(AP, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, Russia named Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and seven affiliated news services as foreign agents. The Russian parliament prepared to ban the organizations from attending its sessions in response to similar US actions against English-language Russian network RT.
(SFC, 12/6/17, p.A2)
2017 Dec 5, Russia arrested Norwayian pensioner Frode Berg, a former guard working on the Norwegian-Russian border. FSB security service later said it caught the Norwegian taking secret documents about the Russian Navy from a Russian citizen.
(Reuters, 12/19/17)
2017 Dec 5, Saudi Arabia's public prosecutor said most of the people detained in a sweeping anti-corruption campaign launched last month have agreed to settlements to avoid prosecution.
(Reuters, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, Police in the Sicilian capital of Palermo scooped up 25 suspected mobsters on an array of charges, including Maria Angela Di Trapani (49) accused of filling in as boss for her imprisoned husband.
(AP, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, South Korean prosecutors formally charged former spy chiefs Nam Jae-joon and Lee Byung-kee, who were arrested last month over suspicions they used their agency's funds to make illegal payments to former President Park Geun-hye.
(AP, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, Spain's Supreme Court withdrew an international arrest warrant for Carles Puigdemont, Catalonia's former leader, now in self-imposed exile in Belgium after an illegal independence referendum, in a move to bring his case back solely into Spanish jurisdiction.
(Reuters, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, In Syria an explosion ripped through a van in Akarma, near the central city of Homs, killing at least eight people. State news said Syrian air defense units have shot down three Israeli missiles that were targeting a military post near Damascus.
(AP, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, In eastern Syria airstrikes killed at least 12 civilians in al-Jarthi, a village held by the Islamic State group. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Russia carried out the strikes, in support of US-backed, Kurdish-led forces driving to capture IS territory on the Euphrates River. The Observatory said 21 people were killed in the strikes.
(AP, 12/6/17)(Reuters, 12/6/17)
2017 Dec 5, Turkey’s state media said 17 suspects have been detained in an investigation into Reza Zarrab, a Turkish-Iranian gold trader who was once a close ally of the government but is now testifying against officials as a star witness in a high profile US case. Pres. Erdogan said that the case was a "plot" aimed at hurting Turkey.
(AFP, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, Turkish prosecutors launched an investigation following media reports that 11 members of a Turkish folk dancing group were seeking asylum in Hungary.
(AP, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, Ukrainian authorities accused former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili of plotting a coup sponsored by Russia and attempted to arrest him. Supporters of Saakashvili freed him from a police van after his detention on suspicion of assisting a criminal organization led to clashes with police in Kiev. He then led protesters towards parliament, where he called defiantly for President Petro Poroshenko to be removed from office.
(AFP, 12/5/17)(Reuters, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, The United Arab Emirates announced a new partnership with Saudi Arabia, separate from the Gulf Cooperation Council. announcement came just hours ahead of a GCC meeting in Kuwait, to which only Kuwait and Qatar sent their heads of state.
(AP, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, The UN warned of a ticking time bomb of drug-resistant germs brewing in the natural environment, aided by humans dumping antibiotics and chemicals into the water and soil.
(AFP, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, A senior UN official arrived in Pyongyang for a rare, four-day visit at the invitation of the North Korean government.
(AP, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, In Yemen thousands of Huthi supporters rallied in Sanaa as the rebels cemented their grip on the Yemeni capital after killing their former ally ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh. Exiled Ahmed Ali Saleh, the powerful exiled son of slain ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, vowed to lead a campaign against the Houthi movement that killed his father after he switched sides in the civil war.
(AFP, 12/5/17)(Reuters, 12/5/17)
2018 Dec 5, US President Donald Trump urged OPEC members not to slash production at their upcoming meeting, saying global oil prices should remain low.
(AFP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, In Washington DC international dignitaries gathered with US leaders at the funeral service for George H.W. Bush.
(AP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, In the SF Bay Area San Quentin prison officials called an emergency meeting to discuss a possible connection between contraband illegal drugs and the unexplained recent deaths of two Death Row inmates.
(SFC, 12/6/18, p.A1)
2018 Dec 5, In the SF Bay Area Berkeley street poet Julia Vinograd (74), widely known as the Bubble Lady of Telegraph Avenue, died in an Oakland hospital. Her work included 68 collections of verse.
(SSFC, 12/9/18, p.C11)
2018 Dec 5, Afghanistan appointed its first woman to a senior post at the Interior Ministry, naming Hosna Jalil as deputy for policy and strategic affairs.
(AP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, The Albanian government gave in to demands from students and canceled a double charge for repeated exams but said it could do nothing about the level of tuition fees because these are set by the individual institutions, which are partially self-supporting. Students said they would continue the protest until all their demands were fulfilled.
(AP, 12/6/18)
2018 Dec 5, The Australia-based Institute for Economics and Peace recorded nearly 19,000 deaths last year in its annual Global Terrorism Index. That is a decrease of 27 percent from a year earlier and down 44 percent from a peak in 2014.
(AP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, Bosnia's prosecutors office said Dragoljub Kunarac (58), a Bosnian Serb ex-commander who was jailed for 28 years by the UN war crimes tribunal for rape and enslavement in Bosnia's war of the 1990s, has now been indicted over the killing of Muslim civilians.
(Reuters, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, Britain's High Court has ruled that Deliveroo riders do not have the right to collective bargaining, the latest in a series of rulings as U.K. courts grappled with the rise of the so-called "gig economy".
(AP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, Bulgaria's government confirmed that it would not join the United Nations pact for better regulating worldwide migration, set to be adopted later this month.
(AFP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, Bulgarian authorities said they have seized a huge amount of weapons and munitions during police raids in the capital Sofia and a small village in central Bulgaria.
(AP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, Cambodian officials said 32 Cambodian women who were charged with human trafficking for serving as surrogate mothers have been provisionally released from detention after agreeing to keep the babies rather than giving them up as originally planned.
(AP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, China issued an upbeat but vague promise to carry out a tariff cease-fire with Washington but gave no details that might dispel confusion about what Presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump agreed to in Argentina.
(AP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, It was reported that Croatia is suffering a severe labor shortage, most glaringly in its booming seaside tourist resorts, that is compounding obstacles to economic growth and dimming hopes of catching up to more developed EU peers.
(Reuters, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, In northern Cyprus at least four people were killed in flooding late today as hail and rain hammered the island.
(Reuters, 12/6/18)
2018 Dec 5, An Egyptian court sentenced five people, including Mohammed Badie the head of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group, to life in prison on charges related to inciting violence and supporting militants.
(AP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, EU diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini urged Russia and the US to save a Cold War arms control treaty after Washington issued a 60-day ultimatum to Moscow.
(AFP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, Police arrested dozens of suspected mobsters in Europe and South America in dubbed "Operation Pollina," a huge international swoop targeting Italy's notorious 'Ndrangheta mafia clan. Police seized four tons of cocaine, 120 kilos of ecstasy and two million euros (dollars) in cash across Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Suriname.
(AFP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, It was reported that Pinna nobilis, a giant species of clam only found in the Mediterranean Sea, was in danger of extinction due to a mysterious parasite. The mollusk has been the EU's list of protected species for decades.
(SFC, 12/5/18, p.A2)
2018 Dec 5, French trade unions and farmers pledged to join nationwide protests against President Emmanuel Macron, as concessions by the government failed to stem the momentum of the most violent demonstrations France has seen in decades.
(AP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, A Paris court of appeal approved an extradition request by Burkina Faso's government for the brother of ex-Burkinabe president Blaise Compaore.
(Reuters, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, Greece intercepted a Syrian ship sailing for Libya. The Noka was escorted to Heraklion port on the Greek island on Dec. 8, where the authorities unloaded its entire cargo and found about six tons of processed cannabis and 3 million super-strength "Captagon" amphetamine pills worth more than 100 million euros ($113 million).
(Reuters, 12/14/18)
2018 Dec 5, An Indian court remanded to custody British businessman Christian Michel accused of paying bribes to Indian officials to win a helicopter deal for Anglo-Italian firm AgustaWestland, following a rare extradition.
(Reuters, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, Italy was informed by North Korea that acting ambassador Jo Song Gil and his wife had left the North Korean embassy in Rome on Nov. 10 and that their daughter (17) had been repatriated on Nov. 14.
(Reuters, 2/20/19)
2018 Dec 5, In Luxembourg Xavier Bettel started his second term as prime minister, leading a coalition of his liberals along with Socialists and Greens.
(AP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, In central Mali 15 civilians from the Fulani community were killed when armed men from a rival ethnic group attacked their village.
(Reuters, 12/8/18)
2018 Dec 5, Mexico's new Pres. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he will take a three-year break from awarding new oil exploration contracts in order to judge the results of contracts already awarded.
(AP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took aim at the finances of the powerful Jalisco cartel in what a top anti-money laundering official said was the opening salvo in the fight to stop criminal gangs from flourishing with impunity.
(Reuters, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 5, NATO's foreign ministers meeting in Brussels reaffirmed their commitment to stay the course for security in Afghanistan despite mounting Afghan casualties and the slow pace of peace moves.
(AP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, NATO gave Bosnia-Herzegovina the green light to take a major step forward on its path toward joining the world's biggest military alliance, despite Bosnian Serb objections to membership.
(AP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, Young Nepalis created a map of the Dead Sea with used plastic bags in a bid to set a new international record and raise awareness about the vast volumes polluting the world's oceans.
(AFP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, Portugal and China signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation within China's modern Silk Road initiative, with special emphasis on transport connections and energy during a 24-hour state visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
(AP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, Russian President Vladimir Putin voiced support for Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro as he visited Moscow seeking financial assistance for the socialist country's collapsing economy.
(AFP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, Russia warned authorities in Cyprus not to allow the US military to deploy on their territory, saying such a move would draw a Russian reaction and result in "dangerous and destabilizing consequences" for the Mediterranean island.
(Reuters, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, Serbia's PM Ana Brnabic warned that the formation of a Kosovo army could trigger Serbia's armed intervention in the former province.
(AP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, Slovakia's PM Peter Pellegrini said his country has expelled a Russian diplomat after discovering he was a spy working under diplomatic cover.
(AP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, Somali commandos backed by US forces raided two al-Shabab checkpoints overnight at which the extremists extort money from commercial vehicles, killing several fighters.
(AP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, A Spanish regional court confirmed a controversial ruling that cleared five men of gang-raping an 18-year-old woman during Pamplona's 2016 San Fermin festival, a case which led to protests across Spain over chauvinism and sexual abuse. The Navarra court confirmed nine-year prison sentences for the men.
(Reuters, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, The Swiss government chose Ueli Maurer (68) of the anti-immigration Swiss People's Party to become president in 2019. Parliament also elected Viola Amherd of the centrist Christian Democratic Party and Karin Keller-Sutter of the center-right Radical-Liberal Party as two new members of the council, bringing the number of female members to three.
(AP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, Togo's government banned a series of planned opposition protests on security grounds, saying the marches posed a security risk.
(AFP, 12/6/18)
2018 Dec 5, A Turkish court issued arrest warrants for two suspects close to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, increasing pressure on the kingdom's de facto leader.
(AFP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, The UN secretary-general's envoy for Western Sahara met with foreign ministers from Algeria, Morocco and Mauritania plus leaders of the Polisario Front in Geneva over the future of the Morocco-annexed territory.
(AP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 5, The Vatican launched an investigation into a small Chilean religious order of nuns after some sisters denounced sexual abuse at the hands of priests and mistreatment by their superiors.
(AP, 12/7/18)
2019 Dec 5, US House Speaker Nancy said she was authorizing the drafting of formal impeachment charges against Pres. Donald Trump “sadly but with confidence and humility".
(AP, 12/5/19)
2019 Dec 5, US and British authorities took aim at the Russia-based cybercriminal group known as Evil Corp, indicting two of its leaders, Maksim Yakubets and Igor Turashev, and ordering asset freezes against 17 of its associates over a digital crime spree that has netted more than $100 million from companies across the world.
(Reuters, 12/5/19)
2019 Dec 5, Democratic presidential contender Michael Bloomberg unveiled a gun control policy just steps from the site of one of Colorado's worst mass shootings, calling for a ban on all assault weapons, mandatory permits for gun purchasers and a new position in the White House to coordinate gun violence prevention.
(AP, 12/6/19)
2019 Dec 5, In south Florida four people, including a UPS driver, were killed after robbers stole the driver’s truck and led police on a chase that ended in gunfire at a busy intersection during rush hour in Miramar.
(AP, 12/5/19)
2019 Dec 5, Three Minnesota National Guard crew members were killed when their Black Hawk helicopter crashed south of St. Cloud.
(SFC, 12/6/19, p.A7)
2019 Dec 5, In New York City Dr. Gordon Freedman was convicted of accepting thousands of dollars in bribes and kickbacks from Insys Therapeutics Inc in exchange for prescribing his patients an addictive fentanyl spray the drug manufacturer produced.
(Reuters, 12/6/19)
2019 Dec 5, US federal officials in Massachusetts announced that more than 60 members of the Latin Kings gang have been arrested.
(AP, 12/5/19)
2019 Dec 5, A federal judge in McAllen, Texas, temporarily blocked a plan for a construction firm favored by President Trump to build a privately-funded segment of border wall along the banks of the Rio Grande River. Fisher Industries of North Dakota, recently won a $400 million federal contract to construct 31 miles of barrier along the border near Yuma, Ariz. President Trump has urged the Army Corps of Engineers to hire the North Dakota–based firm, whose head is a major Republican donor and a frequent guest on Fox News. In January, 2020, a federal appeals court ruling freed up construction money for 175 miles of border wall.
(Yahoo News, 12/6/19)(SFC, 12/13/19, p.A9)(SFC, 1/10/20, p.A5)
2019 Dec 5, A report by the Environmental Integrity Project released showed some 30 states have reduced funding for pollution control programs, 16 of them by more than 20%. Forty states, meanwhile, have cut staffing at environmental agencies, half of them by at least 10%. Over the last decade, the US Environmental Protection Agency’s budget and work force have both decreased by 16%, and the Trump administration has proposed slashing the agency’s budget further while shifting more of its work to states.
(Reuters, 12/5/19)
2019 Dec 5, General Motors Co and South Korea's LG Chem said they will invest $2.3 billion to set up an electric vehicle battery cell joint venture plant in Ohio, creating one of the world's largest battery facilities.
(Reuters, 12/5/19)
2019 Dec 5, The Australian Federal Police (AFP) and Australian Border Force (ABF) issued a joint statement saying three people have been charged with importing 1,633 kg (3,600 lbs.) of methamphetamine and heroin into Australia by hiding them inside of stereo speakers originating from Bangkok, Thailand.
(Insider, 12/5/19)
2019 Dec 5, A British judge exonerated three black men who served time in prison 50 years ago based upon the testimony of a corrupt police officer. The group, dubbed the “Oval Four," served eight months in prison but sought to clear their names. A fourth man could not be located to take part in the case.
(AP, 12/5/19)
2019 Dec 5, Burundi authorities said at least 28 people have died in landslides following weeks of heavy rains. Many people remained missing.
(SFC, 12/6/19, p.A2)
2019 Dec 5, The Czech Republic’s defense ministry said it has signed a deal to buy eight mobile MADR 3D radars from Israel for 3.5 billion crowns ($152 million).
(AP, 12/5/19)
2019 Dec 5, French police fired tear gas at protesters in the center of Paris. Public transport ground to a near halt in one of the biggest strikes in France for decades, aimed at forcing President Emmanuel Macron to ditch a planned reform of pensions.
(AP, 12/5/19)
2019 Dec 5, In western Iran an explosion of a heating gas pipe killed at least 11 people and injured 42 others during a wedding ceremony in the predominantly Kurdish city of Saqqez.
(AP, 12/5/19)
2019 Dec 5, In Iraq crowds backing a paramilitary force close to Iran flooded Baghdad's main protest camp, rattling anti-government demonstrators who have denounced Tehran's role in their country. At least 15 people suffered stab wounds in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square.
(AP, 12/5/19)
2019 Dec 5, Uber launched in Ivory Coast's commercial capital Abidjan, part of its expansion into African markets with low levels of car ownership and limited mass transport.
(Reuters, 12/5/19)
2019 Dec 5, A Kosovo court sentenced a former ethnic Serb minister to two years in prison for inciting ethnic hatred. The Pristina court said that Ivan Todosijevic incited national, racial, religious and ethnic hatred when he denied a massacre of Kosovo civilians in Recak in 1999, which prompted NATO to step in and stop the war.
(AP, 12/5/19)
2019 Dec 5, Libya's UN-supported government and US officials accused Russia of deploying mercenaries to fight alongside opponents in the country's civil war. The Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) has documented 600-800 Russian fighters in Libya.
(SFC, 12/6/19, p.A4)
2019 Dec 5, The Silvana III, an oil tanker managed by a Chinese company under US sanctions, anchored off Kuala Kurau on Malaysia's west coast. It did not follow instructions to drop its ladder to allow maritime authorities to conduct checks. After several attempts to instruct the ship to drop ladder were not heeded, the ship lifted anchor and left the location.
(Reuters, 12/11/19)
2019 Dec 5, In Mauritania scores of migrants, who swam through rough Atlantic Ocean waters to safety from a capsized boat, received care after 58 others drowned in one of the deadliest disasters this year among people making the perilous journey to Europe. The boat had left Gambia a week ago carrying at least 150 people, including women and children.
(AP, 12/5/19)
2019 Dec 5, Russian state nuclear company Rosatom said it has suspended work on revamping a factory at Iran's Fordow nuclear complex due to an issue with uranium compatibility.
(Reuters, 12/5/19)
2019 Dec 5, Samoa's government told most public and private workers to stay at home and shut down roads to nonessential vehicles as teams began going door-to-door to administer vaccines against the measles epidemic that has killed 62 people.
(SFC, 12/6/19, p.A4)
2019 Dec 5, Slovakia’s police said they have charged former PM Robert Fico with racism for his comments about the embattled Roma minority.
(AP, 12/5/19)
2019 Dec 5, South Africa was hit by power cuts after a number of generating units broke down, forcing the struggling state power utility Eskom to cut up to 2,000 megawatts (MW) of power from the national grid on a rotational basis.
(Reuters, 12/5/19)
2020 Dec 5, Pres. Trump reportedly called Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) and requested that he call a special session of the state legislature to get lawmakers to override the presidential election results and appoint electors to vote for him instead of President-elect Joe Biden. Kemp reportedly declined. Trump flooded his first postelection political rally in Georgia with debunked conspiracy theories and audacious falsehoods as he claimed victory in an election he decisively lost.
(AP, 12/5/20)(The Week, 12/6/20)
2020 Dec 5, A US federal appeals court rejected a bid by a conservative lawyer to block President-elect Joe Biden's victory in Georgia and left in place procedures that will make it easier for voters to cast absentee ballots in January when two Senate seats are up for grabs.
(Reuters, 12/5/20)
2020 Dec 5, In southern California more than 150 people were arrested and a juvenile sex trafficking victim was rescued after Los Angeles County authorities shut down a massive underground party.
(NBC News, 12/9/20)
2020 Dec 5, California to date had 1,315,805 cases of coronavirus and 19,810 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 163,760 cases and 2,028 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 14,521,676 with the death toll at 280,634.
(sfist.com, 12/5/20)
2020 Dec 5, It was reported that South Korea-based Kia is recalling nearly 295,000 vehicles in the US because the engines can stall or catch fire. Engine failure and fire problems with Hyundais and Kias have plagued the companies for more than five years.
(AP, 12/5/20)
2020 Dec 5, The value of global stocks crossed $100 trillion for the first time.
(Econ., 12/19/20, p.98)
2020 Dec 5, In Armenia tens of thousands of opposition supporters marched across Yerevan to push for the resignation of PM Nikol Pashinyan over his handling of the conflict with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh.
(AP, 12/5/20)
2020 Dec 5, The prehistoric monument of Stonehenge in southern England was closed to visitors after dozens of protesters staged a trespass against the British government's road-building plans, including a new tunnel near the World Heritage Site.
(AP, 12/5/20)
2020 Dec 5, Protests over a controversial French draft security bill that would make it illegal to film and identify police officers with malevolent intent took place again. 95 people were arrested and 67 police officers were reportedly injured.
(AP, 12/6/20)
2020 Dec 5, The Indian government and protesting farmers failed to break their deadlock in talks over new agricultural laws. Farmers continued to block key highways around New Delhi.
(SSFC, 12/6/20, p.A5)
2020 Dec 5, In India an unidentified infection began causing over 500 people to fall unconscious following seizures and nausea in Eluru Andhra Pradesh state.
(AP, 12/8/20)
2020 Dec 5, Iran's death toll from the global pandemic rose above 50,000, as the country grapples with the worst outbreak in the Middle East. over 12,150 new cases brought the total of confirmed cases to above 1,028,980.
(AP, 12/5/20)
2020 Dec 5, Kuwaitis elected a new parliament in an election that saw two-thirds of lawmakers and the country's only female legislator lose their seats.
(AP, 12/6/20)
2020 Dec 5, Clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinians erupted, at the funeral of a 13-year-old killed by Israeli gunfire a day earlier in the occupied West Bank.
(AP, 12/5/20)
2020 Dec 5, Italian police arrest 19 suspects, dismantling what authoritie3s said was a criminal organization that moved migrants via Greece and Turkey to Italy and then into northern Europe.
(SSFC, 12/6/20, p.A5)
2020 Dec 5, It was reported that Colonel Malick Diaw, one of the key figures behind the August coup in Mali, has been chosen to lead the interim legislative body, the National Transition Council, despite concern over the military's continued influence in the country.
(BBC, 12/5/20)
2020 Dec 5, Russia launched its nationwide coronavirus immunization effort in Moscow, where thousands of workers in the city's health and education systems have signed up to receive the Sputnik V vaccine at 70 vaccinations facilities throughout the capital.
(The Week, 12/5/20)
2020 Dec 5, The MV Hasan, a cargo ship flagged out of Sierra Leone, was attacked while traveling past Yemen in the Gulf of Aden. It had been on its way to Salalah, Oman, and ended up off the small port city of Nishtun in Yemen's far east.
(AP, 12/5/20)
2020 Dec 5, In Thailand thousands of monarchy loyalists greeted King Maha Vajiralongkorn as he led a birthday commemoration for his revered late father. In recent days at least 12 protest leaders have been charged with royal defamation under lese-majeste laws.
(SSFC, 12/6/20, p.A6)
2020 Dec 5, In southern Yemen Khalid al-Hameidi, a university professor and secular thinker, was killed in a drive-by shooting. Al-Hameidi was a harsh critic of religious extremism, and encouraged his students to organize and take part in mixed-gender cultural and artistic activities in Dhale University.
(AP, 12/5/20)
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